360 



[October, 1908. 



PLANT SANITATION. 



A SUGGESTION FOR WEED ■ 

 SUPPRESSION. 



By Alfred J. Ewart, D. Sc., Ph. D., 

 F.L.S., 

 Government Botanist. 



At some recent prosecutions under 

 the Thistle Act at Leougatha the Police 

 Magistrate, Mr. G. Read Murphy, offered 

 a series of prizes to the children bringing 

 the largest numbers of Ragwort, a plant 

 with which the district is infested, to 

 the head teacher of the local State 

 school. As the result, the head teacher 

 writes to say that so far 19,943 plants of 

 ragwort have been brought to him, and 

 that over 12,000 were brought in during 

 the first four days. Apparently the 

 idea has been very successful, and the 

 children have for the time being cleared 

 the district, more or less, of plants of 

 ragwort of appreciable size. 



There can be no doubt that the same 

 idea might be extended to other districts 

 infested by proclaimed weeds with great 

 effect, although it seems hardly fair to 

 throw a new burden on the already 

 heavily-laden shoulders of the local 

 teachers. If the fines obtained as the 

 result of prosecutions were devoted in 

 some suitable fashion as rewards for 

 their destruction, the good done by the 

 Thistle Act would be greatly increased, 

 and an order authorizing Police Magis- 

 trates to devote the fines inflicted to 

 that purpose would be of great value. 

 The money would then be retained and 

 utilized in the districts affected, where 

 it is usually most needed, instead of 

 being lost to it. 



The good effects of utilizing the 

 services of the children in the manner 

 above indicated are two-fold. In the 

 first place everyone who has had any- 

 thing to do with children and with plants 

 knows how strong the natural des- 

 tructive tendency of children is, and 

 how much damage it can cause when 



uncontrolled. By directing this destruc- 

 tive tendency into proper channels we 

 give their natural faculties full play, and 

 divert them from the useful shrubs, 

 trees, birds, nests and the like on which 

 they might otherwise be exercised. 

 After a time the child should come to 

 regard certain plants as he does snakes, 

 i.e., as something to be destroyed on sight. 

 When he comes to man's estate and has 

 land of his own, proclaimed plants will 

 not be likely to thrive upon it. It is 

 from an educational point of view, and 

 by inculcating the spirit that certain 

 plants, like certain animals, are natural 

 though insidious enemies of man, that 

 the idea of offering rewards to school 

 children for their destruction is likely to 

 prove of most use. 



Nevertheless in Prance, and in other 

 countries also, the services of children 

 have been largely utilized to keep down 

 or suppress plant or animal pests, and 

 the direct good effects of children 

 scouring the highways and byways for 

 weeds are not to be under-estimated. 

 It is along roadsides that the problem 

 of weed suppression is most difficult, and 

 it is also along the roads that weeds 

 spread most readily from one district to 

 another. I have estimated that a plant 

 of ragwort allowed to flower freely in a 

 newly-cleared district may, under 

 favourable conditions, succeed in estab- 

 lishing 500 offspring besides being itself 

 perennial. The 20,000 plants of ragwort 

 collected and destroyed by the school 

 children in a short time at Leongatha, 

 and at an unfavourable period of the 

 year, represent a potential 10,000,000 

 plants in the following season. Fair- 

 sized plants of ragwort run about 10 to 

 the pound when thoroughly dried, so that 

 10,000,000 plants represent not far short 

 of 500 tons of organic matter which, in 

 the form of sheep or mutton, would be 

 of considerable value, instead of a dead 

 loss to the district. — Journal of the 

 Department of Agriculture of Victoria, 

 Vol. VI., Part 8, August 10, 1908. 



