“SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
point of view, there is little doubt that the other States will, in the end, suffer 
similarly unless the problem of control is taken in hand energetically and 
quickly. ' 
Another point to which attention may be drawn’ is the regrettable fact that 
so many of our Australian pests have escaped général notice and official efforts 
at their control, until they have become so firmly’ established that eradication 
is almost impossible and extremely costly, Frequently a plant is not declared a 
noxious weed until its presence in a locality is so abundant that it cannot be 
eradicated, whereas had it been exterminated on its first appearance the sum 
involved would have been quite small. 
The present position of the prickly pear problem may be stated to be some- 
what as follows:—Millions of acres in Queensland and several millions in New 
South Wales are covered heavily with prickly pear, Though much of the country 
so affected is comparatively worthless, many parts are good grazing land, or 
could be used for other agricultural and pastoral purposes. Besides interfering 
with the transit of man and animals through the infested country, the prickly 
pear itself occupies land which should be covered in many instances with 
(Photo. supplied by Arthur Temple Clerk, Lands Department, Brisbane.) 
PRICKLY PEAR (Opuntia Incinus), showing dense Pear in open forest country. 
herbage, and instead is covered with this useless plant. Beyond the parts 
infested heavily or only lightly with prickly pear are extensive areas in which 
scattered plants occur, perhaps only one to an acre or one to a few Square miles. 
These are the parts which, in a few years, will be densely covered with pear, 
and it is they that are adding the thousands of acres yearly to what is termed 
the -pear-infested country. There is, in fact, a continued extension. of the fast- 
nesses of prickly pear by these outliers extending. yearly’ further: and further, 
thus adding more and more to the financial drag of this vast incubus. 
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