Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-01-06

ply Of substance during the rest of the
year when the thistle is no longer succuent
and other fodder crops are not to be had.
Besides. the price of wool offers no compen-
sating incentive and mutton is only dead
sheep when your flock is fifteen hundred
miles from market.
Its Present Extent.
That the thistle Is spreading, is indeed
coming rapidly eastward. there can be no
doubt. 1t first appeared in Bon Homme
county, South Dakota, and from there
spread northward along the Jim river. for
a long time seeming to be unable to cross
that stream and advance eastward. At
last. like the Yankee who crossed the Con-
necticut river by walking up to It's source,
where he cold step across, the thistle
leaped over the Jim several hundred miles
to the north of Bon Homme county. 1t also
went on to the west along the Chicago and
Northwestern railroad to Pierre on the
Missouri. With the building of various
railroads the weed travelled north and west
as far as the Northern Pacific and to Bis
marck on the Missouri. 1t is now at the
international boundary, where the fertile
Red River valley ceases to be American and
becomes the domain of the old lady across
the Atlantic Indeed, this big weed of Sem
ator Hansbrough's came from Lamoure in
North Dakota, not a hundred miles from
the Manitoba line. The Agricultural De-
partment sent out a month ago inquiries to
correspondents in every county in North
and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin,
northern Iowa, Montana, Wyoming and Ne
braska. Over 300 replies have come, show
ing its widely and rapidly extending march
of destruction. 1t is already in St. Paul and
Minneapolis, where ii first appeared in the
stockyards. and is spreading all over the
suburban streets to disfigure them into it's
hateful presence At Hudson, across the
MiSSicfSGfDDi and the ST. (<rOiX rivers III Is
to be seen.
It is even found south as far as Eau
Claire. 1t has got as far as Arbor Lodge.
Secretary Morton's home in Nebraska on
it's journey to Texas Out In Wyoming it
is now common. and Denver chronicles its
unwelcome arrival there un Ter the shadow
of Pixies Peak. Northwestern Iowa knows
what Ii Is, and the eastern and southern
parts of that state expect 1t % visit .hem
next year. Like the English sparrow. 1t
enjoys railroad travel, and as that little
foreigner hoped from New York to Utah
in ten years 1t is not unlikely that this
other foreign visitor may get over the
country quite as fast.
What 1t Costs Us Yearly.
1t Is estimated that the Russian pest has
now spread over $4,000 square miles of ter
ritory, and that the borders Of this area
are constantly increasing at the rate of ten
to fifteen miles a year. There are over a
million acres Of wheat land embraced in
this western thistledom. and careful esti-
mates at the Agricultural Department last
year placed the loss at s2.0O0.000 from this
weed alone. This past year it has caused
a loss in that region. 1t Is calculated, ex-
ceeding $500, 600 At this geometrical rats
1t Is easy to conjecture what Is going to
happen in a very few years. The danger Is
SO appalling that the states and Congress
have been asked to provide relief and pro-
lection. Senator Hansbrough has introduce
ed a hill nrOyi6inQ a scheme of rfn
exterminate the thistle by digging Ii up he
fore 1t goes to seed. This seems to be the
only way to fight 1t. 1t goes to seed about
August Is. II 1t Is plowed before hat time
1t Is likely to die without hope of postsrity.
To pillow 1t under later than that date is
fatuous indulgence in an idle vagary. 1t
will take hard work to exterminate the
pest. If raked with horse rake or moved
or cut with reaper some seed will surely
be left to perpetuate the curse. Burning
will not effect a complete eradication. Gull
tivating corn. potatoes and other root crops
serves to wipe them out but corn will not
grow in North Dakota and potatoes are
grown only for local supply. which Goes
not require over 1 per cent Of the arabic
land.
The Russian thistle has got to be smit-
ten. hip and thigh. in its green and tender
ageby a sharp hoe in the hands of quick
motioned, leather-backed s1.50-a-day man.
The Hanbrough bill WILL II passed. prob
ably provide that the government shall
pay the $50 to competent, responsible
men, who will contract to keep the thistle
down over certain extent of territory.
This means that the weed must be kept
out of the roadsides, railroad rights Of way
and all commons or waste land. That this
almost superhuman task can be accom-
plished seems wholly too much to expect.
In Russia the steppes of the southeast are
wholly abandoned to the thistle or Tartan
weed as they call 1t, for 1t is not at all
thistle, but a species of saltwort, its scien-
tifie name being Salsola Kali Trogus. The
whole wheat region north of Odessa ia
gradually succumbing to this weed. The
stretch of country from the Caspian sea
northward to Oringen. distance Of 600
miles, Is wholly given over and abandoned
to 1t. The Russian government agreed
few years ago to lend its aid to corpora
lions that undertook to dig canal up
along the Ural valley. and finally backed
cut because Of the prevalence Of the Tar
tan weed. which made II likely that the
lands that were to be reached by the canal
would not be worth having and could not
be titled when brought into communica-
ton with the rest Of the civilized world.