People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1896 — Russian Thistle. [ARTICLE]

Russian Thistle.

Bulletin Agricultural station. The iiusaiuu thistle is uu doubtediy the greatest weed pest that has ever been brought to this country from the old world. If taken in time, however, before the ground becomes tilled with its seeds, it can be held in check, or even exterminated. The farmers of Indiana, and not only the farmers but all other citizens of th§ state, should be on the alert to detect the first inrotds of this pestiferous plant, aod by destroying the young plants prevent its securing a foothold, or at least make its advance very slow! Last year it was found growing in Lake, LaPorte and Elkhart counties, near the Lake Shore railway, and it has also been noted as far south as Winamac and Pulaski counties. It has certainly gotten a good foothold in.the northern part of the State. It was also found last season on the eastern border of the State, at Liberty, in Union county. It is therefore taking the State from two directions. This is exactly the way in which the prickly lettuce came into Indiana. The latter now covers nearly every part of the State, and unless vigorous and vigilant measures are used, the Russian thistle will soon be an equally common aud far more disagreeable and harmful weed. The Russian thistle is rather soft and even succulent in the early part of the season. When the seeds begin to ripen in July, the whole plant becomes more rigid, the stems harden and every part of the plant becomes armed with short, stout spines. If the plants are not gathered until they are prickly, they should always be burned, as the small inconspicuous seeds ripen up in drying and fall out to start another crop. In the Northwest, the Russian thistle is a tumble weed; that is, it grows in a globular outline, keeps its form after dying, and loosening from the soil rolls here and there as the wind blows it. The shaking of the plant dislodges the seeds, and they are scattered far and wide. Often one plant will sow the seed over many miles of territory in a single season. As the plant extends southward arid eastward it loses its tumble weed habit somewhat, but not enough to rob it of any appreciable part of its terrors; it only spreads a little slower. The necessity for the utmost watchfulness to secure and burn the first plants that appear in a locality cannot be too strongly urged.

J. C. Arthur. Botanist.