The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1883-12-11
AGRIOULTURE,

CANADA TH1srLRs.--The thistle ls the
most annoying weed that intrudes upon
the farm. Hard to exterminate and to-
nacious Of life, it propagates wherever a
plans OF any kind can secure foothold.
and once In possession Of field the cost
of Its eradication is sometimes greater
than the value of the field itself. It is
a perennial plant, with annual stems,
and reproduces itself from s.sds aud
roots, and it is due to Its power of rapid
reproduction that it is enabled to
Withstand the farmers attacks so sue.
ctssfully.
The thistle is now receiving the at
tention OF many experienced and prac-
tloal agriculturists, among them Mr..
Archibald Stone, OF Binghamtop, N. Y,
who states that no plant is ~ entirely
dependent on sunshine rs the Canada
thistle. Grow them III mass, or SO
closely together that they will com plete.
ly shade the ground, and as fast rs the
leaves get matured sufficiently to begin
10 restore to the plant tho nut1iment it
has cost the plant to produce them them
they will be through Ill the shade by
the constantly increasing mass of leaves
on the top; they will die for want Of
sunshine, the stems become naked and
the roots become exhausted whlle in
bloom, and your ground will have to DO
reseeded before another crop grows. If
the thistles arc SO scattering that they
will pot shade the ground, corn, oats or
clover will have to be Bown,
In his article to the Husbandmau. Mr..
Stone states that ripening crop of seed
is exhaustive to any crop, yet to think
Of getting rid of Canada thistles by
moving after they had ripened crop OF
seed and burning it soems to be too
slow process for this age.
Other writer's have recommended DIFF
ferent methods for DISCRIMINATING the
tLi,tles, and claim that individual efforts
a4one are useless. AS the down is easily
carried by the winds to considerable
distances the cleanest fields are as Iia-
bic to infiction rs the fonIest. Nomat-
ter how careful a farmer may be to keep
the pest of, his efforts will be thrown
away if his adjoining neighbors do not
exercise the same care as himself, The
work OF destruction can be done ut the
most suitable periods by cooperative
action, nnd each individual will be as
much Interested III the work upon his
nelghbor's field as upon his own. Tho
distribution of the seeds must be pre-
vented i'll pre- ference to anything else,
and much labor may be saved in so do
ing by moving the thistles when
young, and before they can have an op-
portunity to seed. 1t must be done as
often as necessity Tor SO doing occurs,
and the next business will DO to destroy
the plants by shading with some other
crop, and pulling or digging them out,
which is not often necessary, except
when fields are entirely overrun. But
the continued uso OF tho mower is ono
OF tho best remedies to try, although it
requires tho abandonment of the field
for season. That, however, is the pen
atty the farmer pays for the intrusion,
and ls not heavy compared with othor
tried methods.
1t might be claimed without much
exaggeration that the growth of II single
thistle on farm is the beginning OF
decay, and should cause US much alarm
as the entrance Of Oil epidemic in a oom-
munlty. AS sanitary measures are need
cd III the case of epidemic, 80 is coop.
erative effort required to prevent the
spread of thistles.