536 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. fl Dec., 1901. - 
What, then, is to be done to abate a common nuisance, which the law ‘ 
does not recognise as a private or public wrong? Why not revert to the old 
idea of the land being farmed for the common good, and give parish councils 
power to repress noxious weeds as inimical to the welfare of the community ? 
Tn a country like ours, overrun in many parts by prickly pear, Noogoora, 
‘and Bathurst burr, lantana, Sida retusa, &c., many a farmer who keeps his land 
clean is put to double trouble owing to the slovenly farming of his neighbour, 
who allows his land to produce more noxious weeds than crops. 
We know of no law by which a farmer or other person can be compelled 
to destroy noxious weeds on his own property, but divisional boards have 
power, aiter having declared a plant to be a noxious weed, to notify any 
proprietor or tenant of rateable land to destroy it if it appears on such 
land. Failing the owner doing so within a month of such notice, a board can 
enter on the property and carry out the work, charging all reasonable expenses 
to the owner. But one neighbour cannot interfere with another to compel him 
to clean his land. : 
JOHNSON GRASS. 
We have from time to time warned farmers against the once much-lauded 
_ Johnson grass, yet there are still some who inquire where they can get the 
seed. The seed can be got from some seed merchants, we believe, in Brisbane. 
Our advice to would-be purchasers is to buy all the seed in Brisbane, and get 
some sawmiller to feed his furnaces with it to prevent the spread of this 
pernicious grass. Swamp-couch, lantana, Sida retusa are all harmless compared 
to Johnson grass. In Texas, U.S.A., the Cotton Ginner’s Journal says that it — 
has been encroaching to an extent that has finally become alarming to land- 
owners, and it is to-day one.of the greatest menaces to agricultural prosperity 
in that State. Intelligent farmers apprehend that, if some means be not found 
to exterminate it, it will within twenty years blight the most fertile district in 
Texas. Of late it has spread at a wonderful rate, defying all efforts of the 
farmers who have tried to check, control, or destroy it. 
It is said that for a season or two land given up to this grass will yield 
marketable hay in paying quantities, but this is soon over with, and the era of 
non-remunerativeness for land, which would otherwise sell at from 20 dollars to 
40 dollars per acre, stares the owner in the face. As against the intrusion of 
Johnson grass the attack of boll weevils, grasshoppers, and other pests of that 
kind seem to be temporary evils, but this baneful grass has not yet been 
successfully coped with. It grows summer and winter, day and night, in the 
rain and in the sun, just as does a mortgage on a farm, and with equally 
disastrous results. 
The Louisiana Planter says of it:—This well-known but unwelcome 
plant, which some misguided agriculturists have favoured.in the past, is now 
coming to be generally considered as one of the most objectionable plants that 
could be introduced in any semi-tropical country, or in any country where the 
winters are not cold enough to freeze the roots in the ground sufficiently to 
extirpate the plant. Recently Mr. Ball, an expert of the U.S. Department 
of Agriculture, has been in Texas, and talked to the Farmers’ Congress at 
College Station, on 25th July, on the war that should be made on Johnson 
grass, 
RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTAL PLOTS IN THE NORTHERN 
WHEAT DISTRICTS OF VICTORIA, 1900-1901. 
We have received the subjoined table of results of wheat tests in the 
northern districts of Victoria. We have no doubt that its publication in the 
Journal will be appreciated by wheat farmers in this State :— 
