Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-02-01
Well Attended Meeting at the Court
House to Discuss the Much
Dreaded Pest.
Addresses Made by J. N. Devine, G
A. Pollock, Speaker Gill, A, 81.
Laughlin and Others.
Model of Cactus Burner Presented
Plans for Eradication of the
Thistle Presented,
From Wednesdays Daily.l
The Cactus Meeting,

Senator McCarten presiding, accounted
for the absence Of Prof. Bolley by rea
son of the death of Prof. Whalen of the
Fargo Agricultural college. Senator
Casey was lndisposed and did not feel
able to attend. The members of the
joint committee we're all present and al
most every seat was occupied. E. A.
Underwood had a model of his machine
for burning the cactus, on exhibition.
The machine for use will be about 1922
feet, made of 20-guage steel and will
weigh about 5000 pounds. The fire box
is about two feet in depth. The fire is
originated by straw or stubble in front
of the machine and is carried over bare
ground by an iron bar which becomes
red hot and hugs the ground, picking up
and burning the seeds even. Fans are
kept in motion by an endless chain at
tached to the wheels, while two smoke.
stacks carry off the smoke and add to
the fan created draft. This device for
burning is drawn by four horses and it
is claimed will destroy utterly every
plant and seed on thirty acres or more a
day. The cost of the machine is esti-
mated at $3.50. It Is proposed that it be
used on vacant lands in August, destroy
ing the growing plant before it seeds,
and that it follow the harvesters, burn
ing the stubble and with it the cactus
which has gained a toothold while the
crop is maturing.
Hon. G. A. Pollock was the first
speaker and spoke in general terms of
the pest, of the dangers and the need Of
action, urging that the localities which
do not have 1t are equally interested
with those that do, for it is sure to be
on them unless it can be eradicated.
Mr.. Devine had been familiar with the
cactus since 1886, when it first made it's
appearance at Edgeley. So far as known
it originated in this country in the Rus
sian settlements in Bonhomme county,
South Dakota, fourteen years ago. He
had seen fields a thick mass of it only
two or three inches high, and again had
seen it sailing over the prairies, scatter
ing seeds everywhere, presenting the
appearance of millions of sheep. Some
of the plants measure 31@ feet high by
5R feet wide and SIX feet long, and a
single plant carries seed enough to grow
plants which will cover a quarter Sec
ton.
Governor Shortridge gave an account
of his trip to Washington, Of the aston
ishment of the members of congress who
had never heard of it, of the failure of
J. Sterling Morton to comprehend, of
his making a party question in opposi-
ton to national aid, of his later admis-
sior that it cost the country s20,O00,OOO
last year, and would cost it $40,OOO,O 900
this year. He insisted that the people
who have the pest can not bear the cost
of Kidding even their own farms of it
that state aid was absolutely necessary.
Hon. F. NJ. Kinter followed. He spoke
Of his first acquaintance with the cactus
in 1880, when it was brought to Edgeley
by the Milwaukee road from South Da-
kota. At that time $500 would have rid
LaMoure county of it, and 5000 Dickey
county. Since then 1t has spread 100
miles east through Sargent into Rich
land, and it was only a question of time
when it would completely overrun the
Red River valley. It is rolled along be-
fore the autumn wind and the seed car
ried in the drifting snow of winter. It
grows in spite of drouth, but, like wheat,
hourishes best in favorable seasons. He
spoke of wheat, which, on the 4th Of
July, promised twenty bushels per
acre. choked by cactus in August to
such an extent that it was almost i'm
possible to 60 through it with a team.
OF eighty acres of breaking in July
without q plant that was so thickly Gov
cred in October that a hat thrown upon it
could not touch the ground, from seed
scattered on the prairie the year before,
or carried there by drifting snow in
winter. He said there were thousands
and thousands Of acres in the cactus
AA0VAASCo "AACA cuo AdIu40E6 lW0E0 kOrC0u
to abandon. Summer following only
promoted it's growth. Burning in the
fall did no good, but he had seen fields
where it was burned off in the spring,
where the crop was put in with a disc
harrow, which yielded twenty.six bush
els of wheat per acre, but usually the
burning left strips on which the cactus
sprang up and was as bad as before.
There was no way to exterminate ex-
cept by fire and he called attention to
the Underwood machine, which from
tests made he believed would destroy it.
A forty.mile wind would in three days
seed Walsh county from this district,
therefore Walsh and all Red river coun-
ties was interested. He favored an ap-
For Aching Backs,
LIN A.