New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1879-07-02
Experience In Killing Canada Thistles,

AGA AAOA0 0A0V oOA0 P0A OACuIoI Mouo&Oe
ment Of the irrepressible Canada this
tie, in some single instances through
hoeing, blowing, moving or some other
method, apparently more accidental
than through any shrewd management,
will prove to be almost entirely sue
cessful in killing these pests of the farm.
Let the farmer but take that particular
method as precedent for future bat
thing with the enemy, undertaking to
kill other fields of thistles in the same
way, and nine times out of ten he will
fail and get discouraged; or. even if he
succeeds in killing them out, root and
branch, he will find the identical ground
well stocked with seed, with which TO
renew itself again, unless constant care
is exercised to suppress them.
l do not consider Canada thistles
really irrepressible; but l must say that
l have been more successful in keeping
them subdued through tilling and weed
ing, so that they would not interfere
with the growing crop, rather than in
killing them outright. am inclined
to believe that the Berlin correspondent
you quoted in recent issue will find
that the thistles he reported to be killed
were only choked down and subdued,
for the time being, by the ranker
growth of the field-crop overlapping
them, when their leaves, which act as
their lungs, deprived of sufficient light
and air, will shrivel and die down, just
as they are reported to have done by
your correspondent. Ihave found that
with any crop that will grow ranker or
taller than the thistle it is much easier
to keep the latter in check than with a
short growth, as barley, or a small
hoed crop, as beans. Wherever thistles
can have the advantage, they are most
sure to take it. .-
Twill state some personal and varied
experience in fighting thistles, which
have proved the most successful in sub
DUNG them. The first lot I tried to kill
was few acres where the wheat was
choked out by them the year before.
planted to corn, in rows, to cultivate
both ways, and which I 'continued to
cultivate often until August; then, after
a rain, pulling every remaining thistle
by hand, at which. time they would
come up with long root, and bythat
season of the year the corn was large
enough to so completely shade the
ground as to keep them from sprouting
again. I have never had many thistles
on that spot since.
The next experience was with ten
acre lot, well-seeded to the large late
clover, with about half of it very
"thistley." Both the clover and this
ties were nearly even in their growth
until they were about twenty or twenty
four inches high and densely thick on
the ground, with the thistles nearly
heading out. At this stage of affairs,
think about the early part of July, a
heavy wind and rain-storm laid it all
flat on the ground. In a few days the
clover raised its heads, to grow up
again as rank as ever; but the thistles,
failing to make new growth, died out
and rotted under the heavy crop of
clover, which was cut the last of July.
The thistles seemed quite dead, and
that piece of ground was free of the
noxious weeds for years after.
Other fields where thistles had over
powered the barley I have sowed to
rye. which grew quicker and taller
than the thistles, reducing them very
much, and giving q good opportunity
to seed down to clover and timothy,
which, when the ground is well-stocked
with it, so preoccupies the land as to
check the growth of the thistles.
was, however, surprised one year in
filling twelve acres of corn on an old
and tough quack turf, where l expected
also to have plenty of thistles, by not
finding any of the latter, except where
some stacks by standing had smooth
cred out the quack, when the thistles
soon occupied that ground. Over the
balance of the field it appeared as if the
quack had run out the thistles. Late
in August, as had the quack about
subdued, the thistles started up quite
numerously from seed which seemed to
have been in the ground. However,
think these small plants could be easily
killed if attended to promptly.-H.
Toes, in american C4ltivator."