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Thistle plague
THEY’RE BEAUTIFUL to artists, botanists, wildflower fanciers, and heraldists, but to farmers, Musk Thistles are a serious problem. Thistles have recently become a plague of near epidemic proportions in Rappahannock
Once again, one of the complicating factors is related to that more extensive plague of Northern Virginia in general — “development.”
How can “development” play a partin something like a thistle epidemic? Surely, Mr. Editor, you’ve let your strong feelings about spreading suburbia and shopping center-itis cloud your reason! Now you’re really getting far-fetched!
Not so. One particular farming landowner is directly menaced by a tract of land immediately adjacent to her pastures. The tract is “speculative land,” land bought up for “development,” and it isn’t being used. such land is a prime target for an infestation of thistles, and once started, it Spreads. And it has, to land that would be used more for livestock production if it weren’t for the thistles, which make it useless for much grazing or haying. AND OF WHAT use is it for a conscientious farmer to pay some three dollars an acre to spray the thistles in his fields when the things thrive on land next-door which is being “held” by some absentee owner for purposes which have nothing to do with grazing or haying?
IN PULASKI COUNTY, we’re told, owners of thistle-infested fields are fined if they refuse to do anything about maintaining the land. In Illinois, we understand, such fines are decreed by state law. Maybe similar controls would be a good idea for counties in the Northern Piedmont, where so many once lush fields have already become overgrown with knee-high cedars — those classic indicators of land held for speculative purposes. Just drive around the Dulles area of Loudoun, or along the projected path of 1-66 in Fauquier, to -see what we mean. □
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