REGARDING the understandable confusion of Eileen Eastham who asks about ragwort (Letters, August 20), the problem is enough to confuse anyone who is not familiar with what has gone on over the years.
It was when I started to keep bees in 1932 that I first learned about this extremely poisonous weed. At that time, it was a prescribed weed and any farmer or landowner who did not eradicate it, was liable to be fined.
The operative word was 'liable,' as I never heard of anyone being fined. The same ruling applied to thistles.
Over the years, there have been sporadic attempts to tackle the problem but so prolific is this weed that, apart from freeing certain areas for a short time, nothing has been achieved.
Every plant of one of countless millions of plants, produces thousands of tiny seeds which the slightest breeze sends streaming like smoke and these travel for miles and populate ever more areas.
The juice from the stems and leaves contains an alkaloid poison and children picking the 'pretty yellow flowers' are endangered. Horses and cattle die from liver failure after eating the plants, which are often harvested in dried hay for animal fodder.
ALBERT MORRIS, Clement View, Nelson.
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