Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1894 — TO FIGHT A THISTLE PLAGUE. [ARTICLE]

TO FIGHT A THISTLE PLAGUE.

A Bill Introduced In Congress Appropriating 51,000,000. A bill has been introduced in Congress for the appropriation of $1,000,UOO to be expended in the extirpation of the Russian thistle, which is described as “the most pernicious member of the vegetable kingdom.” The Russian thistle was carried to North Dakota by some Muscovite immigrants in the feed of grains and plants which they imported. It has spread over both Dakotas, in Nebraska, lowa, Minnesota and Northern Wisconsin. Whenever a brisk autumn wind, blows from the northwest or west its seed is wafted across vast belts of territory On the downy growth which it produces. It scatters everywhere, and is a universal nuisance and pest. The descriptions of the plant are almost sensational. From the main stalks new offshoots project in all digestions, and from these offshoots, as they ripen, further stems fextend, like the cactus growths, until a single thistle is as big as a sod cabin. It is a more destructive pest of agriculture than all other plants and all insects combined. It covers the ground, shading the young crops and absorbing, with superior suctional force, the moisture and all the sources of nutrition in the soil. Men and animals are compelled to Wear sheetiron bootlegs in passing through the thistle fields in order to protect themselves from its pricks, which are not only painful but as poisonous as the sting of a wasp. In Siberia the thistle hah driven farmers entirely away from many hundred square miles of fertile territory, has choked up the irrigating canals, and has made the highways impassable for man or beast.