1882 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
IT 
the charge of stealing scissors, and one was 
sentenced to three months, and his two asso¬ 
ciates to one month’s imprisonment each. 
The Canada Thistle. 
Probably no weed is held in greater dread, 
and justly too, by farmers, than the “Canada 
Thistle.” In localities where it is, fortunate¬ 
ly, not known, its reputation has gone before, 
and farmers, when a new weed makes its 
appearance in their grounds, at once ask if it 
is not the dreaded “Canada Thistle.” The 
number of plants that have been suspected 
of being this Thistle, and have been sent 
with a view to ascertain the facts, is very 
large. The plant is known by the name 
•‘Canada Thistle” in this 
country only ; it was prob¬ 
ably introduced from Eu¬ 
rope by the way of Canada, 
and was so called for this 
reason. In England it is 
known as '“ Creeping This¬ 
tle,” and “Com Thistle,” 
and in France and Ger¬ 
many by the names in the 
language of those countries 
which translate into “ Field 
Thistle.” There are several 
native kinds of Thistle, and 
besides the “Canada,” one 
other introduced species is 
common upon our farms. 
The general appearance of 
a Thistle head should be 
well known, it being often 
figured as the emblem of 
Scotland. Numerous tubu¬ 
lar purplish flowers are 
collected in a close head, 
which is surrounded by a 
globular, or egg - shaped, 
usually prickly involucre, 
as the greenish cup-shaped 
portion at the base of the 
head is called. A plant 
suspected of being the 
‘ ‘ Canada Thistle ” should 
have a flower head of this 
kind. To distinguish the 
“Canada” from all other 
thistles, the size is suffi¬ 
cient. The heads are rare¬ 
ly an inch in diameter, usu¬ 
ally not over half an inch. 
The plant throws up slender 
stems,usually two feet high, 
though in rich grounds it 
may be taller. The plant 
sometimes bears only sterile, and sometimes 
only fertile flowers ; the heads of the former 
are globular in shape, the others being egg- 
shaped. The flowers are of a dingy purplish 
color. The foliage is of a pale-green color, 
each leaf narrow, deeply lobed on the margin, 
and with numerous very sharp prickles. An 
engraving is given of a single lower or root- 
leaf, and a flowering stem in its young state ; 
later, when the unopened heads come into 
flower, their stems will elongate, and raise 
these flowers to nearly the level of the upper 
one. The leaves upon the upper part of the 
stem are smaller and exceedingly spiny. 
The “ Canada Thistle” has the reputation of 
being the most formidable weed of agri¬ 
culture (though a native, the so-called “ Horse 
Nettle,” Solanum Carolinense, is far more to 
be dreaded), and we are often asked how to 
destroy it. When it once is well established, 
and its long creeping root stocks which 
branch in every direction, get possession of 
the soil, they are very difficult to eradicate. 
The plant is introduced by the seed. The 
first year it makes but little show, only a 
tuft of leaves, with no ascending stem. In 
this state it is busy in preparing for the 
future, by getting possession of the soil, 
its running root stocks are formed, and 
a store of food laid up in them for the 
growth of future plants. Fortunate is the 
farmer who recognizes the pest on its first 
appearance, as he can then easily uproot the 
plant, and save much future trouble. Where 
a few plants have made a foothold, they have 
sometimes been destroyed by cutting off their 
LEAF, ROOT, AND FLOWER-STALK OF THE “ CANADA THISTLE.” 
flowering stem and applying a small hand¬ 
ful of salt to the freshly cut root. Unfortu¬ 
nately the plant is not usually noticed until 
it is well established and forces itself upon 
the attention of the farmer. Where there is 
a large patch no uprooting or salting will 
answer. The plant “means business,” and 
unless the farmer accepts the challenge, he 
had better sell out, or the Thistle will event¬ 
ually get the better of him. There is no one 
fact more thoroughly proved than that a 
plant can not live long without leaves. If 
the green foliage be cut off as often as it ap¬ 
pears above the surface, the plant must die. 
If cutting with a sharp hoe, every few days, 
if need be, be persisted in, the plant, will in 
time be exhausted. If it be cut two or three 
times in the season, the plant will like it 
rather than otherwise, and probably spread 
all the faster for it. It is a case in which 
there can be no half measures; it must be 
“ war to the knife and the knife to the hilt,” 
else the farmer will come out of the fight 
second best. We know of cases in which 
persistent work has conquered this formid¬ 
able weed : it will do so every time. 
Farming as an Occupation.—II. 
BY HON. GEORGE GEODES. 
What is success in life ? If we mean the 
accumulation of great wealth—then few men 
in any business will be successful. If we 
mean the acquisition of a competence, then 
most good farmers succeed. Just how they 
succeed I cannot show by giving particulars, 
beyond mentioning certain great principles 
which are necessary to success in nearly 
every kind of business ; among these may 
be specified, industry and economy, directed 
by intelligence. Let us test this matter on a 
large scale. At the end of the Revolutionary 
war, say one hundred years ago—there was 
scarcely a white man living, in all that part 
of the State of New York lying west of 
Utica. Dense forests covered all the land, 
and before food could be produced, at least 
twelve day’s labor of a sturdy axe-man was 
required to clear an acre fit for planting com 
or wheat, among stumps that must remain 
in the way of the plow for many years. This 
land once cleared, except the stumps, must 
be fenced with immense labor. Houses and 
bams must be constructed. Mills, bridges, 
roads, then school houses, then churches, 
came in their order. No rich men went 
there, except as speculators, hindering the 
progress of the country by buying land in 
advance of the demand of settlers, and rais¬ 
ing the price as the settlements advanced. 
The rich lands teemed with malaria, and this 
was especially true along the streams which 
gave sites for mills, which were to form 
nuclei of villages. Notwithstanding all these, 
and many other obstacles, the farmers on 
this part of our State, have accumulated a 
mass of wealth, which now appears in cities, 
villages, farms, and all the elegances of 
the most advanced civilization. But why 
cite the cities and villages as the work 
of the farmers ? Because they all owe their 
existence to the fields around them—and 
their inhabitants are but the manufacturers 
and exchangers of the productions of the 
soil. Besides this accumulation of wealth 
that can be seen, the settlers of this land 
have supported themselves, educated their 
children, encouraged all branches of busi¬ 
ness, and made them prosperous. This 
shows that farming does pay, when viewed 
in its aggregate results. It not only pays, 
but it makes everything else pay. Looking 
at this work of a century, we ask, what will 
the descendents of these farmers do with 
the accumulations of following centuries. 
They pay no rent to landlords ; the profits 
are all their own. 
This is but the money view of the subject. 
The pure air and health that have resulted 
from drained swamps and cultivated lands ; 
the room to enjoy life, and the ability to stay 
all the year at home, as compared with city 
life, which forces an absence of a month or 
two every summer in pursuit of health; 
these and many other considerations which 
make a country life desirable, are not to be 
lost sight of, when we are enquiring whether 
