1 May, 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 369 
Horticulture 
THE DREADED WATER HYACINTH. 
QUEENSLAND Dercriines 'ro Suppry Mapras. 
Some time ago an application was received by the Queensland Agricultural 
Department from a correspondent for seeds or plants of the water hyacinth. 
Mr. P. McLean, Agricultural Adviser to the Queensland Department of Agricul- 
ture, very properly refused to assist in introducing this serious pest into India. 
Planting Opinion, Madras, writes thus on the matter :— 
According to the Queenslander, Mr. P. McLean, Agricultural Adviser in 
Queensland, has declined to supply two applications from India, one for the 
most tenacious of all water plant pests “the Water Hyacinth,” and the other 
for a weed, Sida retusa. The very fact of any person desiring to introduce the 
former into a country free from such a pest, would naturally fill any ordinary 
man with horror, for one has but to read of the large sums of money spent in 
Florida, not in its extermination, for that appears impossible, butin opening up 
tracks for the shipping to pass through, to realise what a terrible enemy it may 
soon become if neglected for ever sucha short season. The weed forms itself 
into solid mat-like masses, through which itis impossible for other than specially 
constructed ships to force a passage. Propellers are frequently inextricably 
tangled up and broken, and ships disabled on their coming in contact with 
these detached floating islands of ropy vegetation. Nothing avails to eradicate 
it. Certain spiders have been found which do, to some extent, destroy it, yet 
they cannot be got in sufficient numbers to do much permanent good. Queens- 
land tried it, and is suffering accordingly ; and little wonder that Mr. McLean 
declined to lend a helping ioral in adding yet another curse to India, over- 
burdened as she is already with pests and blights of almost every description. 
The introduction of such a pest should be forbidden by Government, and the 
offence made liable to severe punishment. Many people will sacrifice the whole 
of an industry for the sake of gratifying a passing whim. The applicant for 
the Water Hyacinth merely wants it for ornamental ponds near Madras ; so 
far so good. How long would it be before it got out of the ornamental ponds 
near Madras to ornamental ponds belonging to some friend in some part, who 
would not do as the present applicant promises, viz., take all precautions, 
Granted precaution was taken, how long is that going to last? Probably until 
the novelty of the thing has worn off, and the danger does not seem of such 
magnitude as at first. The Scotch in Australia and the Argentine, who longed 
to see the emblem of their country once again, caused seeds of the bonnie thistle 
to be sent out to them. The conditions were the exact antithesis to those of 
Scotland; the warmth of soil revolutionised the plant, and in a short while it 
became not the friend of his childhood but his deadliest foe. The sweet briar 
that lays waste thousands of acres of land was introduced as an ornament in 
Australia; the rabbit as a pet. How many squatters gaze with hopeless eyes 
on the barkless shrubs and bare ground in time of drought while they 
reflect: that but for the rabbit the loss in sheep that year might probably have 
been two or three thousand less; and how many weary days and weeks does the 
farmer and grazier toil with his clearers and bullock teams, dragging up with 
peat heavy chains the briar which renders his land useless? ‘The applicant 
or noxious weeds and pests in general should reflect for a moment before 
introducing them into a country that as yet does not number them among its 
drawbacks, and should sacrifice his personal desire for the general good. 
