The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-12-05
A GREAT SCHEME.
Garden City Man Proposes to
Utilize Russian Thistle.
Would Convert the Pest Of the
Plains Into Paper.
GOOD AS WOOD FIBER.
Sugar Mill Could Furnish the
Lime for Bleaching.
Thousands of Tons Of the Weed
Collect Against Fences.

Garden City, Kan, Dec 81. w
Wampler, a resident of this city, and
formerly living in the paper making
district in Ohio, is sure that he has
solved a preventive for the danger
of a white paper famine. His idea is
simplicity itself and besides reducing
the price of paper to the minimum will
rid the western part of Kansas of a
pest, the Russian thistle, which has
become a menace to the farming in
terests.
Every roadside in this part of the
state as we'll as the uncultivated fields
yield a crop of tons of Russian thiStles
every year and so far the weed has been
of no benefit to the farmers of this
section of the state. The thistle is
weed of the tumbling sort and frequent
~ measures 20 or 25 feet in circum-
ference and is protected with sharp
spines so thickly set that it is impossi-
BILE for stock to eat it after it has ma
tured.
After the first frost it becomes loosen
ed from the soil and starts on its trip
across the country and is carried for
miles and until it is stopped by an OBJ
struction of some kind. Perhaps
barbed wire fence is in its path If this
is the case it's progress is stopped and
thousands of other thistles are piled up
until finally an incline of Russian this
ties is formed up which the thistles
roll until they SurmOunt the obstacle
and continue their journey before the
wind.
They are not idle as they travel
across country and millions of tiny
powder like seeds are, deposited along
the way which the following season
grow nothing else does. Winds,
rain, freezes or drouths do not affect
them and it is on this weed that Mr..
Wampler relies for his raw ma
terial from which he proposes to manu-
facture white paper.
Garden City boasts of a million and
one-half dollar sugar mill, the largest
in the west and from this flows a con-
slant stream of waste lime which can
be utilized in the bleaching process.
From this plant cheap power can be
secured and the cost of making of pa
per will be reduced to the minimum
The raw material will cost nothing, the
lime for bleaching but little more and
the power can be purchased for much
less than it can be manufactured.
The price of white paper such as is
used in the making of newspapers has
advanced at such an alarming rate that
the publishers fear that they will soon
be robbed of their profit if the cost of
the price of paper is not reduced. White
paper at the present time costs nearly
three times as much as it did four or
five years ago and the price is still
climbing skyward.
What to do with the Russian thistle
has been a subject which has caused
the farmers of the western part of the
state more loss of sleep than any other
thing during the past few years. Ten
years ago the plant was unknown in
that section of the state while today
there is scarcely a field which has not
been invaded. The seeds are small and
can not be separated from alfalfa seed
bv the machinery now in use and the
alfalfa seed which contains that of the
Russian thistle is not desirable.
There is already talk of forming a
company which will install the neces-
sary machinery for paper-making and
undertake the task of lowering the
price of the paper trust on print paper
It has been suggested that the CONNER
cial club collect several bales and for
ward to a paper mill as an experiment