Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1883-11-28
AGRICULTURE.

CANADA THIsTLEs. thistle Is the
most annoying weed that intrudes upon
the farm. Hard to exterminate and te-
nacious of life, it propagates wherever a
plans of any kind can secure foothold
and once in possession of a field the cost
Of its eradication is sometimes greater
than the value of the field itself. 1t is
a perennial plant. with annual stems,
and reproduces itself from seeds and
roots, and it Is due 10 ITS power of rapid
reproduction that 1t is enabled to
Withstand the farmers attacks so sue
cessfully.
The thistle is now receiving the at
tention of many experienced and prac-
teal agriculturists, among them Mr..
Archibald Stone, OF Bnghamton, N. Y,
who states that no plant is so entirely
dependent on sunshine as the Canada
thistle. Grow them III mass, or so
closely together that they will complete
ly shade the ground, and as fast as the
leaves get matured sufficiently to begin
TO restore to the plant the nutriment it
has cost the plant to produce them them
they will he through III 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 while in
bloom, and your ground will have to be
reseeded before another crep grows. If
tie thistIes are SO scattering that they
will rot shade the ground, corn, oats or
clover will have to be sown,
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 ripenea a crop of
seed and burning it seems to be too
slow process for this age
Other writers have recommended diff
ferent methods for exterminating the
thlstles, and claim that individual efforts
alone are useless. As the down is easily
carried by the winds TO considerable
distances The cleanest fields are as ha-
ble to lnflicticn as the ioulest. Nomat-
ter how careful iaimer may be tokeep
the pest of, his efforts will be thrown
away if his adjoining neighbors do not
exercise tie same care as himself. The
work of destruction can be done at the
most suitable periods by cooperative
action, and each individual will be as
much interested In the work upon his
neighbor's field as upon his own. The
distribution of the seeds must be pre-
vented in preference 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 for so doing occurs,
and the next business will be 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 use of the mower Is one
of the best remedies 10 try, although it
requires the abandonment OF the field
for season. That, however, is the PEN
atty the farmer pays tor the intrusion,
and is not heavy compared with other
tried methods
1t might be claimed without much
eZaggeration that the growth of single
thistle on farm is the beginning OF
decay, and should cause as much alarm
as the entrance of al epidemic In CON-
munity. As sanitary measures are need
ed in the case OF epidemic, SO is Coop
eratiye effort required TO prevent the
spread of thisties.