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1 Ava., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 131 
all reserves and everywhere else around his district, and, if some steps were not 
taken now to check it, checking it at all would soon be impossible. Cattle eat 
it, and by this means it was rapidly spread throughout the country. Adjoining 
his own residence there was Government land covered with prickly-pear, and 
he would venture to say that, if this land was allowed to remain as it was for 
another five years, at the end of that time nobody would buy it, as the eradica- 
tion of the pear from it would be so costly. With regard to Bathurst burr, he 
thought, in order to lighten the drains on the board’s finances, that 4 clause should 
be inserted in the new Local Government Bill giving the board power to compel 
owners of land adjoining roads infested with burr to destroy the weed. Great 
assistance could be rendered to local authorities in their efforts to eradicate 
burr if this was done. Last year, in his own division the board had spent over. 
£120 on Bathurst burr destruction, and he thought the matter could have been 
largely better dealt with if individuals had been compelled to destroy the burr 
on the roads opposite their own holdings. Again, when contracts were let out 
for burr destruction, it was a difficult matter to get the contractors to do their 
work thoroughly. 
Mr. J. Hupson (Rosewood) considered that Mr. Hagenbach had hit the 
right nail on the head. For the establishment of most noxious weeds, 
especially the Bathurst and Noogoora burrs, they were, in the first place 
unfortunately indebted to the Government. In the second place they were 
indebted to the divisional boards for their spread. At one time the reserves 
were in the hands of the Government, but after they were handed over in some 
form to the boards the latter did not seem to have as much control over them 
as to be induced to clear them of weeds. The result was they were left alone, 
and the weeds flourished and spread. The burr was carried about by cattle, 
and it had spread so much in some districts that they were one vast shrubbery 
of burr. Now, in many parts, it was becoming almost an impossibility to keep 
a paddock clear of the pest. It would be nonsense to compel a farmer to clear 
his land of the weed when Government reserves alongside were covered with it. 
Mr. A. Macrartanx (Rockhampton) said the Noogoora burr might not be 
known to many of the Northern and Central delegates, and as he came from 
the district where it was first propagated in Queensland, he would perhaps 
be allowed to say a little in the matter. The Noogoora burr took 
its name from the Noogoora Estate, about twelve miles from Ipswich. 
It was introduced on to that estate with some imported cotton seed. 
At one time a very small amount of money would have cleared the whole 
district of this pest. He was on the estate twenty-five years ago, after 
the cotton-growing had failed, and when the estate was being put under the 
hammer. ‘Then one man could have cleared the whole of the Noogoora burr 
from off the place. But the estate was finally leased to a man who tool in 
cattle on agistment, and between these cattle and floods, the pest was spread 
all over the country. It might be said that the authorities in the district were 
to blame; but in those days they had no Secretary for Agriculture, no Under 
Secretary, no Mr. Benson to identify such plants. That was the trouble. The 
burr was not looked upon asa danger. Of course a stitch in time would have 
sayed nine, and if Mr. Benson had come along twenty years ago perhaps the 
country might never have heard of the Noogoora burr. It was only recently 
that Mr. Benson had discovered a tree in Rockhampton affected by a scaly wax 
that had hitherto been unknown in the district. The tree in question had been 
destroyed, and the district perhaps saved a scourge, and the same thing might 
have been done twenty years ago in connection with the Noogoora burr. Nut- 
grass was a great pest in some ot the districts about Rockhampton, and he (Mr. 
Macfarlane) desired to know if there was any remedy for it. ‘There were some 
farmers out at a place called Scrubby Creek, and harder-working farmers there 
were not in Queensland. These men, however, had assured him that nut-grass 
was likely to drive them out of the district. ‘They had tried everything to get rid 
of it, but absolutely without success. As for the prickly-pear, he did not look | 
upon it with any great degree of alarm. In many districts about Rockhampton 
