330 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



to spread from roots. Canada thistles may be destroyed, 

 if there are but few, by continually putting salt on them, 

 and as soon as they reappear they should be seasoned 

 again. Cattle will eat them. They may be destroyed 

 also by persistently cutting them off just under the 

 ground with a sharp hoe. A field badly infested may be 

 cleaned by being sown to alfalfa; the frequent cutting 

 of the alfalfa, and its competition for soil moisture, 

 cause the weed's destruction. One must, however, make 

 the soil right for the alfalfa or it will not be able to do 

 the task. Afterward, if the land is desired for pasture, 

 it may be sown to grasses without disturbing the alfalfa, 

 and soon it will be more richly set and more productive 

 than before. 



The common or bull thistle is a biennial and easily 

 destroyed by cutting and preventing its seeding. My 

 father thought these thistles worth letting alone because 

 of their soil-enriching powers. Doubtless their large 

 tap roots may open the soil, and the rest it gets where 

 the thistle stands has some effect. Of docks he felt dif- 

 ferently, and dug them out religiously. He had a story 

 of a blind man who wished to buy land and was driven 

 into the field with his old horse. "Just tie him to a 

 dock, will you?" he asked the would-be land seller. If 

 the man replied, "Aye, I can do that easily enough," the 

 sale was all off, but if he replied, "There's no docks 

 hereabout but here's a thistle that will hold him," the 

 blind man closed the deal for the land forthwith. 



English farmers sow some yarrow in their pastures; 

 sheep graze it somewhat, though in America it seems to 

 be practically uneaten and is a somewhat troublesome. 



