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in the Colony, since that time the plant has increased consider- 

 ably and has fonnd its way to the upper districts." Some 

 doubts were expressed at the time as to its deleterious 

 properties, and I now learn that in Australia its injurious 

 effects are denied, but still it is said to be a most pestilent 

 weed. It is known in Australia as the Noogoo-Burr or the 

 Cockle-burr and is described as " a serious weed pest which 

 threatens the Colon} r ." 



The Government Botanist of N.S. Wales, Mr. J. H. Maiden, 

 F.L.S., in a pamphlet issued in October last says of it: — " If a 

 ship brings small-pox to our shores, the most stringent 

 quarantine regulations are put in force, and the disease is forth- 

 with stamped out; if a suspicious case arises inland, a medical man 

 of much experience is despatched to the district, and the matter 

 is enquired into at once ; but I am sorry to say that as regards 

 weed, fungus, and insect pests, which war against the tiller of 

 the soil or the pastoralist, we have no such ready method of 

 treatment. In the first place we usually hear of the spread of 

 an unknown weed from some chance correspondent, and then, 

 when it gets so bad that something must be done, the time for 

 arresting its spread is past. I was talking to Mr. F. M. Bailey, 

 the Government Botanist of Queensland, a few days ago (this 

 was written in 1896) about the pest which forms the subject of 

 this article. He said, " I well remember when £50 would have 

 stamped it out in my Colony ; now it would take untold wealth 

 to do it." 



I am not in a position to state all the infected areas in New 

 South Wales (perhaps correspondents will tell me.) I suppose 

 less than £1,000, judiciously spent would entirely free us from 

 this pest at the present time. I have no desire to be sensational,, 

 but I state that if allowed to spread unchecked, it will in a few 

 years deteriorate our territory to the value of a million of 

 money. If we had a Weed Act in force we might have the- 

 machinery available to cope with the threatened danger." 

 After quoting some correspondence about this weed and dis- 

 cussing its poisonous or medicinal properties he concludes w T ith 

 the following paragraph : — 



" How to get rid of it. — I can only say, as I have said 

 before in respect to the Bathurst-burr in July, 1896, that it is 

 too much to expect to entirely get rid of this all-prevailing 

 pest; but with patience, it can be largely kept in check. It 

 should be prevented from maturing seed, and, therefore, it 

 should be cut down with a hoe or mattock in the spring or 

 summer ; where convenient it is also desirable to burn the 

 plants as soon as they are dry enough to admit of this being 

 done, as large quantities of seed are produced, the destruction 



