Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 December 1879 — Canada Thistles in the West. [ARTICLE]

Canada Thistles in the West.

I was born with a horror of these weeds. From my good mother I inherited a wholesome fear of the devil and his wiles, and from my father a like fear of Canada thistles. His farm in old Connecticut was well stocked with them, as were all the farms of his neighbors; and though he waged incessant warfare upon them it was ineffectual. For even if he exterminated them from one field the winds of heaven would bring the accursed seeds of the thistle from afar, and plant them once again. So, when he moved to Ohio, forty-one years ago, one of his chief toys was that he had left these pests behind. Hfa views were not so “ advanced” as those of some recent writers in these columns, who seem to think the thistles quite a desirable crop; and so he often “held forth” to me about the pests, and told me if ever one set foot on my farm to sleep not night or day till I had extirpated it, root and branch. Little did I think of the evil day so near. A year ago in August my man and I were mowing Hungarian grass in a large field, each with a team and machine. As we chanced to come near in our rounds, he stopped his team and came toward me with some green thing in hfa hand. Said he: “Do ye know what this concern fa?” “Tes, I do,” I said. “ It’s a Canada thistle, man! Why on earth did you not stop right where you mowed it off, and S’ve me a chance to dig up the root, ree feet deep, if necessary?” “ Why,” said he, “ we have lots of them in York State (he was from St. Lawrence County), and we don’t mind ’em much.’’ “No,” I said, “but you wear buckskin gloves to bind and thrash your grain in! I’ve been there and s6en them do it. I would not have lost the chance to kill that root for a five-dollar bill!”

1 set the figure quite too low. He and I went back to the place he thought he cut the pest, and looked long and faithfully for it. But it lay low, and, like Mrs. Partington’s “feelings,” E roved “too many for us.” Its seed ad come with the Hungarian grass seed, and it had a foothold, and meant to keep it. It believed in the Kansas doctrine of the squatter sovereignty. I hunted for it a good many times, but in vain. I plowed the ground at once, cultivated and harrowed it often and thoroughly, and sowed it to wheat September 23, and flattered myself that I had killed it. Delusive hope! Next harvest (this year) I found it, without buckskin gloves. It was not hard to find. 1 knew just the place where I found it, and knew it for some time afterward. There were about forty of them headed out, blossomed, the seed set; but fortunately not shelled at all. I got the gloves and picked them out from the wheat. They covered a square rod, big and little. The big ones were about forty in number. I picked them out carefully and thoroughly, and carried them to the house and burned every one. If I had missed them, and the seeds got into the straw, chaff, wheat, or manure, my farm would have been well seeded down. I marked the spot where they grew, and in a few days took a long English spade and dug them up. There were one hundred ana thirty-one big and little, some just up and visible’, and others (about forty) that had headed and been cutoff by the reaper. I made thorough work, dug every one, and dug down to the “ double-bow knot” in each. I meant to kill them then and there, and thought I had, and made some original and selflaudatory remarks, such as, “A stitch in time saves nine;” “ Once well done fa twice done;” “An ounce of prevention fa better than a pound of cure,” etc.

Dr. Talmage tells a funny story of an Irishman who had killed a snaae, but was still beating it because the tail still wiggled. Aman said to him, “Why, Pat, what are you pounding the thing for? It is dead.” “Deed is he, thin. I know it sure; but the craythur ain’t sinsible of it!” That is just what was the matter with those thistles./ I had killed them but they were not “sinsible of it.” They came up again before wheat sowing, and I dug them up again deep, abont forty in all. To-day (October 20) I went over and looked among the wheat and dug up thirteen more. I “calculate” to “ fight it out on this line if it takes all”—my natural life. But what I want to know is this: There are “short and easy methods for the Siano,” etc., is there any for the Canaa thistles? Do any of your subscribers who have written so favorably of the thistles -do they want to. buy any [ilants? I think I can supply any negected portions of New York or Connecticut, on reasonable terms. The crop is not much raised hereabouts, and no one is buying the hay, or fodder, or plants, and 1 would like to sell out and go out of the business. If this does not bring purchasers, I can try your regular advertising columns. I learn, too, that a man two miles from here has a square rod of the plants which he is anxious to sell. Seriously, how can we destroy the things? A cat has “nine lives,” butthat is not a circumstance to a Canada thistle. It would be a public calamity for them to spread here, and I leam that the other man is not so thorough as I am. Cannot township trustees compel their extermination now and end the matter? We need advice and sympathy!—Ohio Cor. Country Gentleman.

—The present is an excellent time for cleaning out wells, as in most parts of the West they contain little water. Persons are generally astonished at the amount and character of the filth found in the bottom of wells that were cleaned out the previous season. In addition to offensive vegetable matter there are often dead reptiles, insects and small animals. Still the water in which these creatures have been soaking for months has been used tor cooking and drinking purposes. There are sanitary reasons lor allowing wells to be open, but an open well should have a high and tight curb. The curb, or platform on winch it rests, should also fit tight to the wall of the well. The stones which compose the wall of the well should be laid in hydraulic cement for at least four feet below the curb, and the space between the platform and the wail should be closed with cement.— Chicago Times. . —Senator David Davis has grown in size since the last session of Congress, and has been forced to order a chair for the Senate chamber larger than that which he has occupied hitherto.