144 THE CULTIVATOR. May 
ever, Nuttall says it is indigenous to the remotest por¬ 
tions of Upper Louisiana, but when we refleet upon the 
facility with which the seeds are often transported by ad¬ 
hering to the coats of animals, there is no difficulty in 
accounting for its wide dissemination,: assuming what 
we have just advanced, that it has apparently been in¬ 
troduced from Europe. Certainly in western New- 
York, it has every appearance of being an introduced 
weed. In this country, it grows in cultivated fields 5 by 
the sides of water courses, and among rubbish collected 
around the outbuildings of the farm. It is a vile use¬ 
less weed, and its burs are highly injurious to the flee¬ 
ces of sheep. 
It being an annual, it is easily exterminated, and 
hence is of little trouble to the farmer who takes pains 
to prevent its going to seed. 
THORNY CLOT WEED 
Xanthium spinosum , of Linneus. 
Description. —Spines three parted, leaves three 
lobed, above minutely puberulent near the nerves, the 
under side clothed with acinerous tomentum. Stem two 
to four feet high, pubescent, armed with sharp ternate 
spines; spines yellow. This ugly weed is also a native 
of Europe, being principally found in the south of France, 
Italy, the shores of Austria and Hungary, growing in 
fields and near roads. It has.been introduced into the 
United States, where it is naturalized in places near 
the sea coast from Massachusetts to Georgia We 
have seen it growing aoundantly in waste places near 
Richmond - in Virginia. Happily it has not yet found its 
way into the interior of the state of New-York, but 
wherever it is found it behooves farmers to try and ar¬ 
rest its further progress, and if possible,, exterminate it, 
since it appears to be a greater nuisance in a farm-yard 
than the preceding speciesi It is an annual, fortunate¬ 
ly for the good of the farming community in those sec¬ 
tions where it abounds. Hence it must be compara¬ 
tively easy to be destroyed 
CANADA THISTLE. 
Cirsium arvense of Scopoli. 
Description —Leaves sessile, sinuate, pinnatifed, 
spinous, stem two to four feet high, paniculately branch¬ 
ed with numerous flowers at the summit, involucre 
ovate, scales oppressed mucronated. Rhizoma exten¬ 
sively creeping; perennial. 
Geography, History, &c.—This is one of the most 
troublesome weeds that infest the fields of the agricul¬ 
turist, being a native of Europe, where it is frequent in 
vineyards and fields, especially in a clayey or a sandy 
loamy soil. It will not thrive in a very dry sandy or a 
gravelly soil, or where it is wet and peaty. It has been 
introduced into America from Europe, and grows more 
or less abundantly in various sections of the northern and 
middle states, and it abounds in Canada, Newfoundland, 
and on the banks of the Saskashawen. It is supposed 
it was introduced into the United States from Canada, 
and hence the common name. An instance is given in 
the Farmer’s Magazine where the descending roots of 
this plant were dug out of a quarry 19 feet in length. 
The experiment of Mr. Curtis has been often related; 
he planted about two inches.of the root in his garden, 
in April, and in the November following, it had thrown 
out stolons on every side, some of them eight feet long, 
and some of these stolons had thrown up stemsffive feet 
from the original root. The whole, when dug up and 
washed, weighed 4 pounds. Next spring between fifty 
and sixty young plants made their appearance near 
where the original piece was planted, which must have 
sprung from fragments that had escaped the search of the 
-gardener the preceding fall, who iis said to have been par¬ 
ticularly careful in extracting them. Hence it may well 
be imagined how difficult it is to destroy the plant in cul¬ 
tivated fields, and liow liable it is to spread by plowing, 
from the roots being carried by the plow, especially 
when the ground is rather wet. When in a growing 
state, it is rarely eaten by either horses, cattle, or 
sheep, excepting the -flowers, which are, sometimes 
nipped off by sheep. But when cut with other grass 
for hay, before or about the time of flowering, it is 
eaten by both eatlle, sheep, or horses, during the win¬ 
ter. When it is cut before the plant arrives at maturi¬ 
ty, the prickles become nearly harmless, after being 
wilted. It is said that before the introduction of tur- 
neps and naked fallows, in some parts of Scotland, tliis 
thistle, cut green and wilted, formed the evening meal 
of housed cattle during five or six weeks of every sum¬ 
mer. The seeds are so easily transported by every 
wind as to cause its spread, when it has been once in¬ 
troduced, to be rapid and extensive. 
To destroy it, summer fallowing and frequent plowing 
has been recommended; say let the ground be plowed 
from four to six times, during the summer. Such a 
course is very effectual, provided the season fie dry. 
Seeding down land with the large red clover will also 
keep the thistles in subjection if the clover be kept for 
mowing; then the thick matted mass of clover smothers 
the thistles, exc*ept a few stunted stalks. It is a law 
of vegetable physiology that the leaves are necessary to 
the life of a plant, during the season proper for its 
growth and reproduction. The leaves are the lungs of 
the plant. This is the reason that mowing the thistles 
very low in a dry time, when they are in bloom, often 
destroys the plant—the soil being very dry, there is not 
sufficient life and strength in the roots to put forth new 
leaves, and the roots perish. If the leaves are destroyed 
a few times as soon as they make their appearance 
above ground, during the dry weather of summer, there 
is little doubt but that the ^entire plant will be destroyed. 
S. B. Buckley. 
West Dresden , N. F. March, 1847. 
GOOD FARMIMG—ROTATION. 
Morris Longstreth, in his late address before the 
Agricultural Association in Montgomery Co., Pa., 
gives an interesting example of successful farming, 
practiced by Jacob Sheimer, of Northampton Co., on 
the banks of the Lehigh. He adopted the system when 
a young man, and continued to practice it for thirty-five 
years, with a constant improvement in the quality of 
his land. 
The farm contained one hundred acres, and was di¬ 
vided as nearly as possible into eight fields, of twelve 
and a half acres each. The whole was subjected to the 
following eight years’ rotation :— 
1 . Fallow, manured, limed, and plowed three times; 
2. Wheat, with clover; 
3. Clover, cut early, second crop plowed in; 
4. Whea,t, with clover; 
5. Clover, pastured, 2d crop plowed in; 
6 . Wheat; 
7. Rye, w r ith clover ; 
8 . Corn, on clover sod. 
The object was to introduce the wheat crop as often 
as the land would bear, which was three times in the 
eight years. Many will regard this as too exhausting, 
but it will be observed that each crop is preceded by a 
good manuring, either of barn manure and lime, or 
green clover. It is probable that in less efficient hands, 
or with imperfect manuring, the same successful result 
would not have attended; but in this case, the excel¬ 
lence of the system was proved by the produce ol one 
season, which reached as high as 1400 bushels of wheat 
(from three fields;) 600 bushels of corn (from one field:) 
and 300 bushels of rye (from one field;) or at the rate 
of 37 bushels of wheat, 48 bushels of corn, and 24 
bushels of rye, per acre. T. 
