HOW TO DESTROY THE CANADA THISTLE.-IMPORTED DURHAM CATTLE. 
283 
HO^TO DESTROY THE CANADA THISTLE. 
I am an old man, and not much in the habit of 
using my pen, as you will easily guess—having in 
my younger days been more remarkable for plow¬ 
ing a straight furrow than writing straight lines; 
but you seem to be very good-natured, and I hope 
will leu me “ tell my experience,” as they call it, 
about weeds on farms ; which I shall try to do as 
briefly as possible, trusting that others may be the 
better for it. 
In thq July No. of your paper, a te Canadian 
Naturalist” complains with much justice, of the 
carelessness of farmers in suffering perennial-root¬ 
ed w r eeds \o take possession of the soil, to the in¬ 
jury of the crops; and says, if farmers would be 
unanimous in their efforts to exterminate them, 
even the Canada thistle might be conquered. It is a 
vile weed, which has had as many names as a pick¬ 
pocket (if he is a patriot, he will thank me for re¬ 
minding him that it is not a native of this conti¬ 
nent) ; and he does not wish to get rid of the un¬ 
welcome intruder more earnestly than his brother 
farmers on this side of the St. Lawrence. But 
though they appear to be indifferent, on one point 
they are unanimous, and that is, in lamenting most 
feelingly that individual care is of no use, and that 
all should go to work together. 
Now I say, let every man weed on his own side of 
the fence, if he can do no more, and I prophesy that 
in a short time weeds wull be as sure a mark of bad 
farming as a broken gate, or a dead horse hauled 
out on the common, and left unburied, to taint the 
pure breath of heaven for miles around, wasting 
ammonia enough to fertilize a forty-acre field 
When I took my present farm it was the worst 
in a circuit of ten miles, making my house the centre 
point; and now I believe it is in a condition to 
bear a comparison with some of the best farms in 
the United States—for instance, that of George 
Schaeff, Esq., in Whitemarsh,about fourteen miles 
from Philadelphia, which is much less known than 
it should be. There are no weeds in my fence 
corners, unless you can so call a fine large wild 
clematis vine, which I left to ornament an old tree, 
with its clusters of snowy blossoms, where the 
cows love to stand in its shade on a hot day—or 
an elder bush or two, just enough to give the old 
women elder flowers for medicinal purposes ; or, 
perhaps, here and there, a cluster of purple asters 
and golden rod, so disposed as to show that they 
are left on purpose—but no wild carrot ( Daucus 
carota ), no Ben Salem ( Chrysanthemum leucanthe- 
mum), or rausted weed. 
Now the w’hole secret of this beautifying process 
is this; I weed on my neighbor’s side of the fence, 
as well as on my own; not a weed is suffered to so 
raise its head in peace—for the proverb is true, as 
most proverbs are, which says, “ One year’s seed¬ 
ing makes seven years’ weeding.” I have a good 
chisel firmly set in the end of a strong cane, which 
I always carry when I go out with my men ; and I 
generally come home pretty well tired with the 
labor of cutting off dose to the ground, every large- 
rooted weed I find in my walk. One day when I 
had been out longer than usual, and had kept 
breakfast waiting, my granddaughter w r as very 
curious to know what I had been doing on neigh¬ 
bor Jackson’s hill, a stony field, that, was lmrHixr 
worth cultivating. I told her I had been weeding 
on my neighbor’s side of the fence—that Jackson 
was sick, and I had found the blue thistle (Echinum 
vulgare) was beginning to spread about here, i 
A. friend of mine, in a Yankee settlement, not far 
from the New York line, conquered the Canada 
thistle in pretty much the same way, when nearly 
twenty years ago it was first noticed there. He 
first proposed to have a bee (a), and exterminate 
the intruder at once, but it did not take with his 
neighbors, who thought it would be time enough 
when the weeds came up upon their ground; so he, 
with two other gentlemen, made it their business, in 
their leisure hours, and when they walked out, to 
cut off all the flowering stems, when they could 
not take time to destroy the roots; and besides 
conquering the thistles, they gained a victory over 
their stupid neighbors, who now acknowledge that 
they have been benefited by his having taken the 
thing in time, for they find that wherever neglect¬ 
ed, the weeds will spread; and each one encou¬ 
rages his neighbor to weed on both sides of the 
fence. An Old Pennsylvanian Farmer. 
July 7th, 1846. — 
(a) Lest any one should suppose a bee means 
nothing more than the industrious little insect of 
the name, and as it is a somewhat local term, 
among my Down-east brethren, I will explain—but 
it shall be at a more convenient season. 
IMPORTED DURHAM CATTLE. 
Hilpa, the first cow of the two which I wrote 
you some time ago Mr. Bates w’as to send me, 
reached here this morning. She came in the packet- 
ship New York, Capt. Cropper, which arrived in 
your city a day or two ago ; and I hope you had an 
opportunity of seeing her there, (a) as she is, I think, 
a fine animal, and not inferior to any Mr. Bates has 
sent me. She has a superior brisket, and remarka¬ 
ble width across the loins. Her handling is very 
good. The Bates cross in her is plainly discernible. 
She stands right on the ground—not too high, nor 
too low. I hope you have seen her; and if so, you 
are much more capable of forming an opinion of 
her than I am. Mr. Catlin, who shipped her from 
New York up the river, informs me that Capt. 
Cropper speaks highly of her milking qualities, both 
as to quantity and quality. 
This cow, Hilpa, was stinted to Mr. Harvey’s 
celebrated prize bull Walton, on the 28th of May, 
two or three days before she was shipped, by direc¬ 
tion of Mr. Bates. You know Walton is a descend¬ 
ant of Mr. Bates’s herd. The other cow, Cecilia, 
Mr. Bates purposed to have stinted to his second 
Duke of Oxford, before she is sent out. I have, 
however, written to him to put her to his fourth 
Duke of Northumberland, which bull he informs me 
he retains at home for his own herd, while the other 
Duchess bulls are all let out for the season. I 
herewith enclose you a copy of the pedigree of the 
two cows, signed by Mr. Bates, which I wish you 
would do me the favor of publishing in the Agri¬ 
culturist, with his signature at the bottom, and 
also the remarks he makes in relation to the prize 
calf of Hilpa, calved in 1844—which certificate is 
in his own hand-writing, and is signed with his 
own name. George Y ail. 
Trn 1 / Tnh> 35, 1S46. 
