Evening star., 1886-11-27


From LonSman's Magazine.
Our failures in the acclimatization OF vege.
table lite have almost always been due to senti-
ment. The useful plants and trees have as a
rule, fourished admirably. For example, Mr..
j. A. Froude states in his "Oceana" that the
oats, barley, peas, beans and potatoes were pro-
duced in such luxuriance in Ballarat that he
grown on the plains of Babylon. a reapins
machine had stopped in field of oats. th9
stems of which stood up like wall, and seemed
as If no horse could force passage throuy h
them. For seventeen successive years the
ground has been cropped, aud not a particle OF
manure has been put upon it. The strangest
point about 1t was that there were no weeds,
and Mr.. Froude offers the rather bold sugges-
ton that "weeds are said to be a product OF
high civilization, and do not exist In nature"
Almost tho only failure in useful plants has
been the watercress. introduced some years
ago into New Zealand, it has spread as rapidly
as did the "American weed" In our own coun-
try, checking up the rivers and involving the
annual outlay of many thousand pounds in
keeping the rivers sufficiently clear for navig.-
BILE purposes. OtagO and Canterbury have
been severe sufferers from the watercress. Sem
timent, however, has always been a deadly
thirty years ago Scotch emigrant 10 Austria
liza took with him thistle in a fiower-pot.
Great were the rejOicings among the Scotch col
onists, a dinner was given in honor OF the ma
tiOnal plant, and it was then carefully trans.
ferred to the soil. Now 1t has played the same
part on land as the watercress In the rivers, and
has rendered whole tracts of land useless. 1t
defies all attempts at extirpation and great
sums Of money are paid yearly in restraining
the once welcome plant. That the thistle
would probably become an injurious plant
ought to have been anticipated, and the very
seeds should have heen prohibited as relent-
lessly as we prohibit the Colorado beetle
But who could have thought that the sweet
briar would do any harm? At home we are
only too glad 10 have 1t in our gardens, and a
sweetbriar hedge is q thing OF Joy and an OBJ
ject Of justifiable pride. No one, therefore.
would have blamed the missionary and his
wife, who took with them plant Of sweetbriar
as q fragrant memorial of their garden in the
old country. But when set In the fresh rich
soil of Australia. the plant grew with almost
savage fury. II drove great roots into the
ground, developed itself from a shrub into a
tree, and spread with such alarming rapidity
that it is quite as troublesome as the thistle. Tas.
mania, which is to the mainland of Australia
what the Isle of Wight is to England. has
suffered terribly from the sweetbriar New
Zealand has Jared no better. Mr. Froude
states that is o worse foe to the agriculturist
than the native fern. "At home SO chary of
growth, 1t expands here into vast bushes be-
comes q weed and spreads like weed. It over.
runs whole fields In two or three seasons will
turn O cleared farm into an impenetrable
thickct, and has to be torn out with cart
ropes and teams OF horses" The reason for
this astonishing growth of the thistle and
sweetbriar is the same AS that which accounts
for the fecundity OF the rabbit and sparrpw
The rich and fertile soil affords the plants
abundance of food and the native hora is 40
feeble that the sturdy intruders have no rivals
to check their progress.