1863.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULT URIS 
of retaliation. I then, as an experiment, took 
4 oz. aloes and dissolved in a gallon or two of 
water, and applied to the plants. I never lost 
a plant afterwards. This season I have done 
the same and have not lost a plant, except 
where I neglected to use the aloes water, and 
then out of 0 plants I lost 3 in one day. As 
soon as I had set new plants I applied aloes 
water, and the remedy thus far is effectual.” 
Talks About Weeds — III. 
We supposed that our first article in the June 
Agriculturist was sufficiently explicit upon one 
point, i. e., tjjat there are no specific prepar¬ 
ations to kill particular weeds. Still as we are 
constantly receiving letters asking: “How shall 
I destroy Canada Thistle?” “What will kill 
Devil’s Flax ?” “ What will remove Sweet Flag 
Fig. 1.— RED ROOT OR PIG WEED. 
from my meadow? ” etc., we are induced to re¬ 
peat that weeds are subject to the same laws of 
growth as other plants, and what will kill the 
one will kill the other. There are but two 
ways of getting rid of weeds after they become 
established: One is to exterminate them, either 
by such frequent cutting that they will be 
exhausted, or to dig them out root and branch ; 
and the other is to introduce a cultivated crop 
that will occupy the ground to their exclusion, 
and choke them. out. The ground has to be oc¬ 
cupied with something—if with a well cultivated 
crop, the weeds stand but a small chance; if by 
a neglected crop, the weeds and the crop have 
to fight the battle for possession and the chances 
are that the weeds will get the best of it. Again 
we repeat that there is no specific remedy for 
weeds, any more than there is for human dis¬ 
eases, and any one who advertises either may 
safely be set down as a humbug. True, a de¬ 
structive agent may be applied to an individual 
plant, as salt to thistles, the same as the surgeon 
may extirpate a wart by means of the knife or 
caustic, but this is a case of local treatment and 
cannot be applied to a whole field. 
The Red Root. —This has of late years be¬ 
come one of the pests of cultivated grounds. 
Its botanical name is Amarantus retroflexus; it 
belongs to the Amaranth or true Pigweed fam¬ 
ily, which produces several troublesome weeds, 
but none so generally known as the one under 
consideration. (The plant most commonly called 
pigweed is Chenopodium album.) Figure 1 will 
give a good idea of the full grown plant. It 
is sometimes called “ Pigweed,” but the most 
common name is Red root, given on account of 
the red color of the root. The plant is distin¬ 
guished by a great vigor and rapidity of growth, 
and if neglected for a short time, becomes so 
large as to resist the hoe and must be pulled by 
hand. Being an annual, a cut with the hoe 
destroys the plant, but the stock of seeds in the 
soil seems to be iuexhaustable, and crop after 
crop will spring up through the season. The 
flower clusters are crowded with minute green 
flowers, each one of which produces a seed. 
From the prolific character of the plant it will 
be seen that a single one, if allowed to arrive at 
maturity, will furnish hundreds if not thousands 
of seeds. If the plant has flowered, it should 
not go into the compost heap, as, in common 
with many other plants, the stalk contains nutri¬ 
ment enough to perfect the seeds after it is cut 
off or pulled out of the ground. The plants, if 
they have flowered, should be dried and burned. 
Like all annual weeds this soon succumbs under 
careful cultivation. Another closely related 
plaqt the Thorny Amaranth (Amarantus spino- 
sus) is quite common in waste places about New- 
York and other sea-ports, but does not seem 
much disposed to extend into the country. It 
is certainly a vile weed and is readily distin¬ 
guished by the sharp spines which are mixed in 
with the flower-clusters. This most unwelcome 
foreigner cannot be too carefully eradicated the 
moment it makes its appearance. 
TmsTLES. —Though we have some ten native 
and introduced species of thistle, there are only 
two which are very troublesome to the farmer, 
and these are foreigners. The common “ Bull 
thistle,” or “Michigan thistle,” (Cirsium lanceo- 
latum) as it is sometimes called, is the common¬ 
est of our thistles. It is readily known by its 
broad luxuriant foliage and its large heads, 
which are an inch or more in diameter. Though 
exceedingly troublesome, especially in grain 
fields, where its prickly leaves are a great an¬ 
noyance to the binder, it is not difficult to ex¬ 
terminate. Being a biennial the root is readily 
pulled. During the first year the plant forms 
a broad tuft of leaves which lie close to the 
ground, and it does not attract much notice; 
the second year it throws up a large flowering 
stem from 2 to 3 feet high, and then becomes, 
from its very prickly leaves, a formidable cus¬ 
tomer. During the first year of its growth a 
cut with the hoe, or a tablesponful of salt ap¬ 
plied to the crown of the plant, will destroy it. 
When it is allowed to run up to flower it should 
be pulled or cut as early as possible. The fruit, 
or seed as it is called, is provided with a copious 
down, and thousands of these little balloons 
with a seed attached may be seen floating upon 
the breeze from the field of some careless farm¬ 
er to annoy his more thrifty neighbor. If a 
whole neighborhood can be aroused to exter¬ 
minate this thistle, not only from the field but 
T. 03 ? 
from the road sides, they would soon be rid d 
the pest. This thistle is an exotic, but it seems 
to make itself perfectly at home in our cultivat¬ 
ed fields, especially affecting the richest ground. 
A far more troublesome plant is the Canada 
Thistle ( Cirsium arvense) which is perhaps the 
worst weed with which the farmer has to con¬ 
tend. As other, comparatively harmless plants 
have been taken for this, we give a very good 
engraving of the upper part of a flowering 
plant. This differs from the common thistle in 
being a perennial; besides its strong roots, it 
throws out into the soil numerous strong root¬ 
stocks, or underground branches, and multiplies 
very much in the way described for the couch- 
grass in the last number. Running a plough or 
cultivator through a patch of it, instead of de¬ 
stroying it, only breaks up these root stocks, 
and they become many separate plants. This 
plant has two separate modes of propagation. 
The one is by its seeds, which are readily borne 
by the wind from place to place, and the other 
is by its underground stems, which from a par¬ 
tial warfare against them only flourish and mul¬ 
tiply. When one Canada thistle appears upon 
the farm the war must begin. It is modest in 
its first appearance, presenting but a small tuft 
of prickly leaves, often hidden by the grass, but 
it must be exterminated at once. If let alone, 
the root-stock extends itself for a long distance 
in all directions, and branches are thrown up to 
the surface. These are apparently winter-killed, 
but the returning summer shows that this is not 
the case, they are only killed down to the 
ground, and as soon as favorable weather comes 
their prickly stems arise from the subterranean 
buds and stand up in bristly defiance to the cul¬ 
tivator. Wherever a Canada thistle appears, 
cut it down. We have but little belief in spe¬ 
cific applications to weeds, but we have known 
these and other thistles to be destroyed by cutting 
as soon as they appeared and applying salt to the 
portion remaining in the ground. Whether the 
first year’s attempt at exterminating this pest is 
successful or not, it is a duty that each farmer 
owes, not only to himself but to his neighbors, 
to prevent dissemination ; let no plant upon the 
