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'Criminal Weeds Some influence, perhaps a succession of dry years, has been peculiarly favourable to the growth of certain weeds, especially those on the index expurgatorius. The weeds which it is a crime to grow, which any man may be prosecuted for growing, are very few. They consist of thistles (two sorts), dock (two sorts) and ragwort. I know wide acres of ground either yellow with ragwort or white with thistle or red with dock. The weeds are in multitudes sufficient to infest half England.; and the seed of both ragwort and thistle covers very great distances. Nothing whatever is done to discourage such anti-social growth. In every county there is a County Agricultural Committee whose inspector is supposed to take notice of such things and issue instructions for the destruction of the weeds. " VVhate'er is best administered, is best." The Act' against noxious weeds is not administered at all in most counties ; and we watch the march of the weeds across the land with the steady progress of the cactus in a neglected area of Australia. Farming is looking up, and our farmers were never so full of enterprise ; and yet I have never seen so Wholesale an advance of weeds, especially those on the banned list. On one heavily infested farm docks were cut, but the seed heads left lying on the ground where they have ripened to perfection.
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