READING the with latest of Ron Freethy's interesting, well-written and well-illustrated articles, I see that (LET, July 17) he makes reference to ragwort in that... "its yellow blooms contain more than a trace of poisonous cyanide."

I may be mistaken, but I've always understood that it's the leaves and stems which contain most of the poison and that it is an alkaloid poison and not cyanide.

However, it certainly is very toxic to grazing animals, even when dried and mixed with hay.

Ron writes that, in 1998 and 1999, a battle is being fought to try to reduce ragwort. When I first started to keep bees in the early 1930s, we were informed that the honey from ragwort wasn't poisonous.

It was classed as a noxious weed by the Ministry of Agriculture and anyone allowing it to grow on their land was liable to a heavy fine.

It appears that this was not strictly implemented and, with thousands of tiny one-o-clock type airborne seeds produced per plant, it has marched all over the country. It flourishes alongside the motorways and roads everywhere and in many fields.

It is growing in abundance in the nicks between setts in many backstreets within the reach of children and, though informed that it is highly poisonous, people leave it to blossom and seed.

ALBERT J MORRIS, Clement View, Nelson.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.