Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 98, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1901 — This Time Its a New Thistle. [ARTICLE]

This Time Its a New Thistle.

And now it is a new and noisome weed that is hurrying down the pike, right in the wake of the ankle bug. State Geologist Bletchley received a sample weed last week from near Jamestown, Hendricks county, and says it is a Texan thistle. The weed was sent by a farmer, who said there aie a few of them growing in that county. “This plant,” said Prof. Blatchley, “is given in Prof. Halstead’s list as one of th.e thirtyfour worst species of weeds in the United States. It originated on the plains of Texas and Nebraska, but is rapidly moving east and northward, and unless soon checked in its course will bring dismay to thousands of farmers who know nothing of its pernicious habits. It belongs to the same family as the ‘horse’ or ‘bull’ thistle, which is one of the worst weeds in Indiana. In coming east the Texan thistle keeps close to the railroads. The seeds are carried in the hair of cattle and sheep and in their feed.”