204 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
There is another reason why I am annoyed. I 
take pride in farming, and as neighbor’s hogs are 
not quite up to the standard of those shown at 
the Exhibitions, and as they are almost always on 
my side of the road, I am afraid that the passers- 
by will think that they belong to me. I am very 
far from saying, however, that neighbor’s hogs 
are not the best calculated for their condition, 
they being turned out with the injunction of “root 
hog or die.” The necessity of long snouts and 
“great power of face,” with a race-liorse build in 
other respects, is apparent, and if I was not so 
much engaged, I think I might make my fortune 
m the modeling of a plow after these hogs’ 
noses, that would have in great perfection, those 
prime requisites “ complete inversion of the sod, 
with thorough pulverization.” You gave a pic¬ 
ture of one of them last year, so perfect that I 
think your “artist” must have been this way for 
his model. 
I am told that the “ law ” is on my side—that 
my neighbor has no right to keep his hogs upon 
the road, rooting up the sod along my door-yard 
fenee, and leaving nuisances at the front gate. 
But how can I prosecute him when we are on 
such intimate terms—he borrowing all my things 
from first to last in the season—besides, he would 
“ beat ” me if the case had to be tried by a “jury 
of his peers.” 
Mr. Agriculturist, could you not write some¬ 
thing that would make my neighbor take away his 
hogs from the hole they have dug at my gate, and 
where they lie the most of the time 1 Could you 
not say that if you had a tiger you would as soon 
think of leaving him at large in the public street, 
as a hog! or that if he had a proper hog-pen, and 
threw in all his refuse litter with swamp muck as 
an absorbent, he might manure four acres a year 
in the highest style of the art! As my neighbor 
has the reputation at the tavern of being a remark¬ 
ably shrewd man, at least in politics, where he is 
an oracle with the loungers, and treats them to 
his views on public affairs, with other treats, per¬ 
haps the four-acre suggestion would be the feather 
that would turn the scale—and as wife has ad¬ 
vised, and I approve of, making our neighbor a 
present of a year’s subscription to the Agricultur¬ 
ist, he will be sure to see it, and thereby we be 
happily rid of the hogs that watch so constantly 
at the front gate waiting for the waters to be 
troubled. We shall cling to this as our last hope. 
Sufferer. 
Remarks. —“Sufferer” has a hard time of it, 
but if the adage be true that “misery loves com¬ 
pany,” we can assure him that he is very far 
from being alone. We could write from “expe¬ 
rience,” and feelingly too, but not more so than 
“ Sufferer” has done, we suspect. However, we 
advise to send your neighbor the Agriculturist, as 
you propose, and if your statement of the case 
does not open his eyes to what has,perhaps, been 
an oversight hitherto, let us know, and we will 
level our trusty old shooting-.'ron at him, or rather 
at his hogs, (loaded with rock salt, of course— 
not lead). It is a great “piece” for scattering shot, 
and while shooting at the hogs above named, men¬ 
tioned, described, and anathematized, some stray 
slugs (of salt) may chance to hit some other hogs 
we wot of. A variety of other remedies are down 
in our note-book, such as live fences, sundry 
chemical experiments upon swine-flesh, grain pre¬ 
pared in sundry ways to be planted on our side of 
the road—not to be fed of course, but simply left 
there for growing, etc., etc., etc., etc. But we 
trust the first named remedy will be all sufficient. 
Ed.] 
- . ——»-«--. 
The day on which idle men work and fools re¬ 
form, is — to-morrow. 
The Canada Thistle.— (Cirsium arvcnsc.) 
Last month, p. 186, we referred to a very valu- 
ble work on “ American Weeds and Useful Plants," 
by Dr. Darlington, revised with additions by Geo. 
Thurber, Prof, of Mat. Med. and Botany, in the 
N. Y. College of Pharmacy. This work could 
scarcely have fallen into better hands. Prof. 
Thurber, has taken hold of the matter with much 
energy and abundant ability. We have long de¬ 
sired a work of the character of this, and we only 
wish it were a little less scientific, or rather, more 
adapted to the reading of the unlettered masses, 
for few subjects possess more importance or de¬ 
serve to be more studied by cultivators at large 
than that of “ Weeds.” This book, however, con¬ 
tains a great amount of information useful to all, 
and we would advise every one to possess him¬ 
self of a copy. Both as a matter of interest, and 
as a specimen of the character of the book, we 
present below an extract upon that well known 
pest the “ Canada Thistle.” The engraving will 
be recognized as a faithful representation of this 
plant. We copy the description precisely as 
given in the book : 
Field Cirsium. Canada Thistle. Cursed Thistle. 
French, Chardon aux Anes. German, Die Acker 
Kratzdistel. 
Rhizoma [root-stalk] perennial—creeping horizontally 
6 to 8 inches below the surface of the ground, and giving 
off numerous erect biennial branches. Stem 18 inches to 
3 feet high, slender and smoothish—the branches slender 
and lanuginous. Leaves 4 to 8 or 10 inches long, sessile 
and slightly decurrent, smoothish on the upper surface, 
sometimes arachnoid-Ianuginous beneath—the radical 
ones curled or wavy. Heads hall an inch to two-thirds of 
an inch in diameter, terminal, sub-pedunculate ; scales 
smoothish, minutely ciliate. Florets palish lilac-purple, 
with whitish anthers, perfect or the heads dioecious by 
abortion. Akenes [seed] linear oblong, slightly 4-corner- 
ed ; pajrpus [down] finally longer than the florets. 
Fields and way-sides : Northern and Middle States : 
introduced. Native of Europe. Flowers July. Fr. August. 
Observation. This is, perhaps, the most exe¬ 
crable weed that has yet invaded the farms of our 
country. The rhizoma or subterranean stem 
(which is perennial and very tenacious of life), 
lies rather below the usual depth of furrows— 
and hence the plant is not destroyed by common 
plowing. This rhizoma ramifies and extends it¬ 
self horizontally in all directions—sending up 
branches to the surface, where radical leaves are 
developed the first year—and aerial sterns the 
second year. The plant appears to die at the end 
of the second Summer ; but it only dies down to 
the horizontal subterranean stem. The numer¬ 
ous branches sent up from the rhizoma, soon cov¬ 
er the ground with the prickly radical leaves of 
the plant; and thus prevent cattle from feeding 
where they are. Nothing short of destroying the 
perennial portion of the plant will Tid the ground 
of this pest; and this, I believe, has been accom¬ 
plished by a few years of continued culture (or 
annual cropping of other plants, that require fre¬ 
quent plowing, or dressing with the hoe,)—so as 
to prevent the development of radical leaves, and 
deprive the rhizoma of all connection or commu¬ 
nication with the atmosphere. The following no¬ 
tice of this annoying weed, from Curtis’ Flora 
Lonclincnsis may not be uninteresting to the 
American Farmer : “ Vitium agrorum apud nos 
primarium est [it is the greatest pest of our fields] 
Linnzeus observes in his Flora Lapponica. The 
same may be said with us : and we have be¬ 
stowed on this plant the harsh name of cursed, 
with a view to awaken the attention of the Agri¬ 
culturists of our country to its nature and perni¬ 
cious effects. “ Repeated observation has con¬ 
vinced us that many husbandmen are ignorant of 
its economy—and while they remain so, they will 
not be likely to get rid of one of the greatest pests 
which can affect their corn-fields and pastures. 
Of the thistle tribe the greatest part are annual or 
biennial, and hence easily destroyed. Some few 
are not only perennial, but have powerfully creep¬ 
ing roots—and none so much as the present. In 
pulling this plant out of the ground, we draw up 
a long slender root, which many are apt to con¬ 
sider as the whole of it; but if those employed 
in such business examine the roots so drawn up, 
they will find every one of them broken off at the 
end ; for the root passes perpendicularly to a 
great depth, and then branches out horizontally 
under ground.” 
Two or three other species of Cirsium are fre¬ 
quently to be met with, (viz.: Cirsium muticum, 
Mx., with the heads not spinose—and Cirsium 
altissimum, Spreng., with the stem leaves not 
pinnatifid): but, as they do not incline much to 
infest the open grounds or farm-land, I have not 
judged it necessary to notice them more particu¬ 
larly here. 
- - i- Cl O Bnr ► -€*- . - 
Exterminating Briers. 
Infields newly cleared of wood, an abundant 
growth of blackberry, raspberry and other briery 
plants usually spring up from seeds carried 
there by birds. These seeds have been waiting 
for the sunshine to biing them to life. Burning 
the brush and rubbish over them gives a fine top 
dressing, from which they will thrive with great 
vigor, often requiring years of thorough culture 
with hoed crops to eradicate them. We have 
found pasturing such fields with sheep an effectu¬ 
al remedy. They are very fond of the leaves and 
tender young shoots, and will keep them so close¬ 
ly cropped down, that they have no chance for life. 
The following year the land can be plowed with 
much less difficulty, than where a thicket of rank 
briers fully armed, disputes the passage of the 
team. 
- — -«»®«——► - 
“ John,” said a father to his son one day, 
when he caught him shaving the “ down ” off" his 
upper lip, “don’t throw your shaving water out 
where there are any barefooted boys, for they 
might get their feet pricked.” 
