CANADA THISTLES. 161 



of Detroit. They do not lack the means of moving. Every 

 through car, every traveler, box or package — even the birds — 

 may bring the seed. The railroad strips are well adapted for 

 nurseries, from which the whole country may be readily sup- 

 plied. 



But can they be exterminated ? Yes, where they do not 

 seed, two years cutting, constant cutting a little below the surface, 

 through the growing season, once a week, or as often as they 

 show themselves, is fatal to them. Some longer watching may 

 be needed, lest others come from the seed. The old adage 

 must be heeded — "one year's seeding, nine years weeding." 

 Taken early, they can be exterminated by watchfulness and 

 persevering labor applied as named. Will it pay ? A gentle- 

 man of my county, who knows them, says, if they are to come 

 he will give one of his quarter-sections to have the other quarter 

 kept free ! If some believe the injury will not be half our 

 land, let us take the moderate estimate of ten dollars an acre 

 as the damage. This, computed on our more than thirty mil- 

 lion acres, gives the damage of seeding the State of Illinois to 

 Canada thistles, $300,000,000. This amount, as a State debt, 

 or naortgage on our farms, would strike the people with terror. 

 But the thistles should be the greater terror. Mortgages may 

 be removed, but the other incumbrance holds by the hated law 

 of entail to the end of time. 



Our Eastern friends have some excuse for their dalliance ; 

 but if we let them come, we sin against light and knowledge. 

 We shall receive, and deserve, the execration of all time, if we 

 permit these fair lands, received by us from the hands of a 

 beneficent Providence in virgin purity, to be polluted, and 

 hence forever cursed with Canada thistles ! (In some parts of 

 Europe they are known as the "cursed thistle.") This, and 

 other noxious weeds not already naturalized here, should be 

 fought as we fight fire, cattle plague, and contagious diseases. 

 Indeed, we should put those already among us, as Lincoln 

 would Slavery, " in the course of ultimate extinction." 



Illinois farmers who are inspired with the noble ambition 

 to make model homes and model farms, to improve their meth- 



