228 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



for by transcontinental tourists in parlor cars. " Weeds," Bur- 

 roughs says, " are great travelers. . . . They are going east and 

 west, north and south, they walk, they fly, they swim. . . . They 

 go under ground and they go above, across lots and by the high- 

 way. But like other tramps they find it safest by the highway ; 

 in the fields they are intercepted and cut off, but on the public 

 road every boy, every passing herd of sheep or cows, gives them 

 a lift." They love the half-earnest tiller of the soil, and will 

 crowd around his barns and dwelling, and flourish in his garden 

 and fields so long as he favors them with slight attention to his 

 crops. 



The fact is patent that weeds are everywhere, and the best 

 means need to be taken to resist their greater prevalence. In 

 this warfare against them there is no weapon equal to a thor- 

 ough knowledge of the enemy that is, an understanding of the 

 nature of these pests, their appearance in all stages of growth, 

 methods of propagation, and dissemination of the seeds. This 

 knowledge is much more highly appreciated in Europe than here. 

 In Germany, for example, they have wall maps upon which the 

 leading weeds are represented. Hung as these are upon the 

 school-room walls, a child, simply from daily seeing these life-like 

 colored drawings of the various pests, will learn their appearance 

 and names. Some such method of instruction is needed in this 

 country, by which the children who are soon to be our farmers 

 and gardeners may become familiar with the troublesome weeds 

 even in advance of their advent, that the proper means may be 

 taken at once for meeting and destroying them. Editors of agri- 

 cultural papers and professors in agricultural colleges yearly re- 

 ceive many letters asking for the simplest kind of information 

 concerning many common weeds, thus showing the general lack 

 of knowledge upon this important subject. To put a map of a 

 dozen of the most destructive weeds upon the walls of every 

 country school-house in the United States is a great undertaking ; 

 but if it were done, the next and succeeding generations of farm- 

 ers would be the better able to carry on the work of extermina- 

 tion. There are a large number of farmers' clubs throughout the 

 country, and a great deal might be done by hanging a weed chart 

 upon the walls of these halls where farmers gather from time to 

 time for mutual improvement and a better understanding of the 

 ways and means of a more profitable agriculture. 



Weeds have been neglected in more ways than one, and just 

 so far as they are overlooked and left to themselves the greater 

 will be the curse. As one looks over the premium lists of our 

 thousands of county and State fairs one seldom sees a prize offered 

 for the best collection of weeds. It seems incompatible with our 

 fitness of things to have a good collection of anything that is bad ; 



