The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1914-05-28
The AbomiAable Russian Thistle.

| There are some weeds that have
some redeeming features about them.
Quack grass, bad as it is, puts humus
in the land. Wild mustard furnishes
excellent food for sheep. Wild oats
make tolerable grazing for all kinds
of live stock and they furnish grade
of hay that. is passable. But what
single redeeming feature has the Rus
sian thistle unless it be that it will
furnish food for sheep while it is
young and tender when they cannot
get something that is better?
This weed is simply an abomiration
in II country that is unfenced and es-
pecAly in one where the climate is
dry. 1t is capable Of travelling not
less than so miles in u single season.
Like a Mexican briganG it travels in
all directions. In a very dry year it
takes complete possession of grain
fields to the almost complete ruin of
the crop. In wet year the grain
may keep the thistles we'll in check
until the grain is cut. They will then
rlpen seed quickly and SOW another
h 'rvest of sorrow. They will spring
up in corn after it has been laid by
and grow to a great size. They will pile
up against fence feet high SO rs to
form an inclined plane, and those
that follow blow over and go OIL their
way distributing seed. This weed is
simply an abomination among west
ern weeds. 1t is, in sense. an abom-
nation that maketh desolate. Any
one who is familiar with the fields in
western North and South Dakota and
in some parts of Montana and Wash
ington in a dry season, will not say
that this language is too strong.
In the face of these facts what is
happening? Why. wise men at public
meetings are telling the farmers that
Russian thistles make good food for
cows in tile dairy, that they make
good hay for horses and cattle, that
they make a fair class of ensilage.
They thus rock the careless and Shift
less farmer to sleep. As they tell
about the virtues of this plant, farm
ers clap and cheer.
Editorials and letters from others
say things akin to these about this
abomination. They dwell upon it's
tigh-feeding value, based upon chem
ical analysis, and the men, whose
fields are so smitten with the pest
that they can scarcely get their bread
some seasons, begin to think after all
that this weed is not such a bad pest.
Surely it is time that such nonsense
should cease. The Russian thistle in
the dry country is a menace to sue
cessful farming. For every ton Of
hay that the farmer will get from it,
he will lose 900 bushels and more of
wheat. When he gets his hay what
good is it? II may keep the stock of
the farmer alive, who does not know
that he can grow winter rye for hay,
no matter how dry the season is. and
that it is every way ahead of Russian
thistles. The men who talk and write
thus should not be put in prison.
They should be reserved for worse
fate. Every man of them shonld be
put upon a farm vile with Russian
thistles, and forced to clean them out
and make his living Oh the farm at
the same time. They would soon
talk less eloquentIy about Russian
thistle hay. They should be set to
work harvesting Russian tlistles for
the silo, and they would soon talk less
glibly about Russian thistle ensilage.
The Russian thistle, repeat, is an
denomination. 1t is to be fought
wherever it is found. The first use
that amy farmer should put it to, is
to kill it wherever the farmer sees it.
His eyes should not pity it, nor should
his hand spare it. lie should breathe
out and deal out destruction to it
wherever he finds it. Wherever a
farmer is found who imagines he has
a good hay and pasture plant in the
Russian thistle, instead of rocking
him in the cradle of a false security,
the cradle should be upset, and in no
gentle manner. The idea of men
praising the Russian thistle for hay
and ensilage! Go, think of it in ST.
lence and alone!
| ENQrNf Iii nn In ga g al inc ~ nj annl {;