A YEAR IN THE FIELDS 



nacity. They fight for the soil ; they plant 

 colonies here and there, and will not be 

 rooted out. Our native weeds are for the 

 most part shy and harmless, and retreat 

 before cultivation, but the European out- 

 laws follow man like vermin ; they hang 

 to his coat-skirts, his sheep transport them 

 in their wool, his cow and horse in tail and 

 mane. As I have before said, it is as with 

 the rats and mice. The American rat is in 

 the woods and is rarely seen even by wood- 

 men, and the native mouse barely hovers 

 upon the outskirts of civilization; while 

 the Old World species defy our traps and 

 our poison, and have usurped the land. So 

 with the weeds. Take the thistle, for in- 

 stance, the common and abundant one 

 everywhere, in fields and along highways, 

 is the European species ; while the native 

 thistles, swamp thistle, pasture thistle, etc., 

 are much more shy, and are not at all trou- 

 blesome. The Canada thistle, too, which 

 came to us by way of Canada, what a 

 pest, what a usurper, what a defier of the 

 plow and the harrow ! I know of but one 

 effectual way to treat it, put on a pair of 

 buckskin gloves, and pull up every plant 

 that shows itself ; this will effect a radical 



