THE NATURE AND TREATMENT OF 



In the situations alluded to, we generally find poisonous and 

 noxious plants, with an abundance of decayed vegetable mat- 

 ter. An English writer has said : " The farmers of England 

 might advantageously employ a million, at least, of additional 

 laborers in clearing their wild domains of noxious plants,* 

 which would amply repay them in the superior quality of their 

 produce. They would then feel the truth of that axiom in 

 philosophy, * that he who can contrive to make two blades of 

 grass, or wholesome grain, grow where one poisonous plant 

 grew before, is a greater benefactor to the human race than 

 all the conquerors^ or heroes who have ever lived.' " The nox- 

 ious plants found in such abundance in the Western States, are 

 among the principal causes, either directly or indirectly, of tlie 

 great mortality among men, horses, cattle, and sheep. The 

 hay would be just as destructive as when in its green state, were 

 it not that, in the process of drying, the volatile and poisonous 

 properties of the buttercup, dandelion, poppy, and hundreds of 

 similar destructive plants found in the hay, evaporate. It is 

 evident that if animals have partaken of such plants, although 

 death in all cases do not immediately follow, there must be a 

 deficiency of vital resistance, or loss of equilibrium, and the 

 animal is in a negative state. It is consequently obvious that 

 when in such a state it is more liable to receive impressions 

 from external agents — in short, is more subject to disease, and 

 this disease may assume a definite form regulated by location. 



It has been observed, also, that in the infected districts, the 



* The American farmers are just beginning to wake up on this subject, 

 and before long I hoj)e to see our pasture lands free from all poisonous 

 plants. Dr. Whitlaw says, " A friend of mine had two fields cleared of 

 buttercups, dandelion, ox-eye, daisy, sorrel, hawk-weed, thistles, mullein, 

 and a variety of other poisonous or noxious plants ; they were dried, 

 burnt, and their ashes strewed over the fields. He had them sown as 

 usual, and found that the crops of hay and pasturage were more than 

 double what they had been before. I was furnished with butter for two 

 summers, during the months of July and August. The butter kept for 

 thirty days, and proved, at tlie end of that time, better than that fresh 

 clmrned and brought to the Brighton or Margate markets. It would 

 bear salting,at that season of the year." 



