\ 
The Russian Thistle. 
Or Russian Cactus. 
The ravages of this plant in the southern counties of North 
Dakota during the last year or two, its still greater havoc for several 
years in South Dakota, its rapid spread to other territory, and the 
practical iinpossibilitj’ of the production of the small grain cereals in 
a district thoroughly infested by the weed, have caused no small 
alarm among the wheat-raisers of the Northwest. Within the short 
period of some sixteen or seventeen years from its first introduction 
into Hon Homme county, now South Dakota, it has crossed that 
entire State and reached nearly to the Northern Pacific Railway on 
the north, crossed the Missouri river and spread rapidly in Nebraska 
until it has infected about one-fourth of that State, while to the east¬ 
ward it is found in many places in Minnesota, and even in Wisconsin. 
Owing to the rarity of high winds from the east, the plant has not 
spread greatly to the west. 
During the autumn of 1893 the alarm among the citizens of 
the southern counties of North Dakota became such that Governor 
Shortridge was appealeil to to call a meeting to consider repressive 
measures, while other petitions urged a special session of the Legis¬ 
lature to appropriate money to aid the infected counties in extermi¬ 
nating the pest. In compliance with the first-named request, the 
Governor called a public meeting to be held at LaMoure on Novem¬ 
ber 9, 1893, at which meeting a committee was appointed to make a 
report to the Commissioner of .Agriculture and Labor, giving all 
available information about the weed, the extent of the infected ter- 
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