122 APPENDIX. 



lime, sand, and stone delivered at the site. A gentleman of my ac- 

 quaintance lately erected a stone dwelling-house in this neighborhood. 

 He procured in the first place estimates for a wooden house. He kept 

 an accurate account of all his ex[)enses ; and found, when he had fin- 

 ished, that the amount was 875 less than the estimate for wood, besides 

 the outside painting. The houses built from our materials are perfect- 

 ly free from all moisture, or frost upon the inside of the walls; and are 

 much the most comfortable dwellings, that we can erect. Could the 

 people of the county be persuaded to build of stone in all eligible sit- 

 uations, it would add highly to the comfort of life in such a climate as 

 ours ; and free our children from an enormous expense." 



[H.] 



Weeds and Thorns. 



There is in the neighborhood of Salem another weed supposed to 

 have been recently introduced from Europe, which threatens to prove 

 troublesome. I found it also in the fields in Amesbury. Dr. Bigelow, 

 mentions it as extending itself in Medford and Charlestown. This is 

 the Knapweed (Ccntaurea Nigra.) It is a harsh, stubborn weed, 

 very difficult of extirpation. An intelligent botanist remarks of it, 

 " that it should be pointed out to our farmers, who ought by all means 

 to destroy it. It is a villanous weed, utterly unfit for fodder either 

 green or dry. It is sometimes called the thistle without thorns ; but 

 it will prove a thorn in the sides of some of our husbandmen, difficult 

 of expulsion, if it is suffered to continue its advances. It propagates 

 by creeping roots and feathery seeds, very much after the manner of 

 the white weed." 



Canada Thistle. Of the tenacity of life and rapidity of propaga- 

 tion, which this plant displays, a striking proof is subjoined. " Mr. 

 Courtis, an English gentleman, in order to test the astonishing powers 

 of reproduction possessed by this plant, deposited about two inches of 

 a root in his garden. In the course of one summer it had thrown out 

 under-ground runners on every side ; some of these runners were eight 

 feet long ; and some of them had thrown up leaves eight feet from the 

 original root. The whole together were taken up; and, being washed, 

 weighed four pounds. In the spring following it made its appearance 

 on or about where the small piece was originally planted. There 



