1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



91 



ing the facts in regard to this disease upon the 

 public attention during the last four or five years, 

 I have only attempted to do what I conceived to 

 be a public duty. So far from having anything 

 to regret, to retract, or alter, from what I stated 

 at first, subsequent events and a more extended 

 observation have corroborated those statements 

 in the strongest manner. If the community still 

 sleep over this danger, I shall have the melan- 

 choly satisfaction of finding, at last, a unanimous 

 public sentiment on this subject. But it will be 

 too late. The result is inevitable. Neglect will 

 and can only lead to unmitigated evil. 



If the people are willing to drink the milk of 

 cows, rotten with disease, and give it to their chil- 

 dren, as they have done in Boston, if they are 

 ready to accept the alternative of having the beef 

 of diseased animals brought upon their tables, as 

 has been the case, I have no more to say. But if 

 they desire to avoid this alternative, they will have 

 to act promply and strenuously for the eradica- 

 tion and stop of pleuro-pneumonia. 



If necessary, let a competent inspector be sta- 

 tioned at the principal markets for live stock, with 

 full power to exclude any diseased animal, or to 

 prevent its being entered and sold there. The 

 last able Board of Commissioners had full power 

 to do this, as well as to put men under oath to 

 elicit facts which will otherwise remain concealed, 

 and this contributed more than any thing to keep 

 the disease in check. 



The honest dealer could not object to this 

 course. It would be his own protection as well 

 as that of the community. The unprincipled 

 dealer alone would be discommoded, and from 

 him the community has a right to protect itself. 

 Very respectfully, 

 Your Excellency's obedient servant, 

 Charles L. Flint, 



Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture. 



HOAV THE KEBELLION "WOKKS. 



Only three years ago, no man, or combination 

 of men, had sufficient comprehension, or penetra- 

 tive power, to devise a scheme which should not 

 only destroy the institution of slavery in our coun- 

 try, but which should open the splendid South to 

 free labor, to schools, and churches, and Yankee 

 enterprise, generally ! All this seems to have 

 been done. We learn that small companies of 

 our most energetic business men are preparing to 

 leave the snow of New England for the sunny 

 South, to engage in sugar-making, cotton plant- 

 ing, or any other honest labor that promises to 

 redeem the land and secure a profit. They will 

 carry with them, of course, the modern imple- 

 ments and machinery for agricultural purposes that 

 have been found profitable here, and along with 

 them the Yankee thrift, economy, habits and man- 

 ners, that have been so hated and contemned 

 by the ''holier than thou" chivalry of the South. 



So the great work goes on. The leaven is al- 

 ready in the lump, and insinuating itself into ev- 

 ery ramification of Southern labor and society. 

 The days of their power are numbered and the 

 most unrelenting and cruel power on earth is fast 



crumbling away. The introduction of our peo- 

 ple, with their painting and poetry, their books, 

 and machines, and churches, and schools, and 

 workshops, and psalm-singing, will finish the days 

 of intolerance and oppression in that beautifu 

 and fertile land. 



THE CANADA THISTLE. 



This is probably one of the most troublesome 

 plants with which the farmers of New England 

 have to contend. Owing to its almost universal 

 dissemination and wonderfully prolific character, 

 the quantity of seed annually j)roduced is so im- 

 mense that no region can reasonably be expected 

 long to escape its presence. The only remedy, 

 indeed, which can, under the circumstances, be 

 even partially successful, is to watch its first ap- 

 pearance and carefully eradicate the roots. Where 

 this is done, the thistle soon disappears, and if 

 not perpetuated by the dissemination of fresh 

 seeds from neighboring or distant plantations, will 

 cease to give annoyance. Where lands have al- 

 ready become foul with this production, the best 

 method is to cut them about the time the seed 

 begins to fly. At this period the large stalks are 

 hollow, and if the tops are removed just before a 

 rain the water will assist the work by filling the 

 tubes and causing rot at the roots. Some prefer 

 cutting while the plants are in full bloom, and af- 

 ter sowing on fine salt, turn in sheep or other an- 

 imals, whose partiality for that mineral induces 

 them to gnaw down the stumps, into which it has 

 entered, till the injury caused to the roots, pro- 

 duces death, and prevents further trouble. 



On the subject of mowing, a writer says : "Let 

 the thistle grow in all its luxuriance till about the 

 time seed begins to scatter with the down. At 

 this time it will be found on examination that the 

 stalk is hollow. Mow the thistles just before a 

 rain, if possible, and the wet, by entering the hol- 

 low stalk, descends to the root and effectually de- 

 stroys it. I have known large fields of thistles 

 almost entirely killed in this way by one cutting. 

 The effect depends on the decomjjosition which 

 takes place in the root, effected by the admission 

 of moisture through the stalk. The experiment 

 can easily be tried by cutting part of a plat of 

 thistles just before they bloom and the remainder 

 after the seed has become hard and the stalk hol- 

 low." 



It is frequently the case that no efforts whatev- 

 er are made to curtail the spread of this pest when 

 it has once obtained a foothold upon the soil, and 

 it is permitted to spread and mature its myriad 

 seeds with as much indifference to the results as 

 though its influence upon the soil were harmless, 

 rather than the reverse. 



When soils are to be laid down to grass, the 

 presence of thistles should be considered as an 



