Tumbleweed in the news

One more correspondent wrote that "smart Russians" informed him the weed expanded abundantly back house around Odesa, "as well as it is supposed to have been brought to The u.s.a by Russians in some manner not known." Some farmers believed it had been introduced purposefully by subversive Mennonites.

I envision him on horseback holding Wanted posters with mug shots of the weed. He was appalled by what he discovered: "one almost continual location of about 35,000 square miles which has actually ended up being much more or less covered with the Russian thistle in the comparatively brief period of twenty years."

Iowa, Nebraska, parts of Wisconsin-- all were being overtaken. The infestation, Dewey was quick to ensure his superiors, was not part of a conspiracy theory. Sometime in 1873 or 1874-- that is exactly how precise Dewey was-- infected flaxseed from Russia had been planted, rather accidentally, on a farm near the community of Scotland, South Dakota.

"The rapidity with which the Russian barb has spread, both in infesting brand-new territory as well as in extensively covering that already infested, far goes beyond that of any type of weed known in The u.s.a," Dewey reported. "Few cultivated plants even, which are intentionally introduced and also purposefully disseminated, have a record for rapidity of circulation equal to that of this weed."