SOCIETY OF NORTHEKN ILLINOIS. 251 



Mr. Dunning — I think the Canada thistle commissioners do not 

 cut the thistle soon enough. They have been cutting them for 

 years, in Cook county, but it has done no good, for the reason, they 

 are left too late. 



Mr. Woodard — We have a farmer's club in our vicinity which 

 meets once a month. We appoint a committee to look after the 

 weeds and noxious plants, to see that they are cut and the public 

 highways properly cared for. The people should be compelled to 

 destroy the cockle-burr, burdock and Canada thistle, which are our 

 worst ones. 



Mr. Rice — There are parties who are advertising all over the 

 country, and selling this sweet clover seed to the farmers, to sow in 

 the road for their bees. 



Mr. Austin — I think the planting of trees along the highways 

 a good thing, if they are not set too thick. This should not be, as 

 excessive shade keeps the roads muddy all the time. Weeds are a 

 good thing in some rtespects. They make the lazy man cultivate his 

 crops, which he would not do if it were not for the weeds. You 

 never hear a good farmer or gardener complain of the weeds, he 

 works his crops to make them grow, and would do so if there were no 

 weeds at all. 



Mr. L. R. Bryant — The weeds iu the fence corners are a bad 

 thing. They get into the pastures and do a great deal of damage to 

 the grass. Personal observation of pastures the past summer, have 

 demonstrated this fact. Weed seeds are widely dissemminated by 

 the running streams. There has been a great deal of good done in 

 our vicinity, through the efforts of the highway commissioners. 

 They have called on the people and told them they must cut the 

 weeds and noxious plants along the roads, thus making a general 

 thing of it, and it is fast becoming quite popular with the people, to 

 keep the roads free from weeds, and seeded down to grass. 



UTILIZING NEW FRUITS. 

 BY D. H. GRAY, ELMWOOI). 



Mr. President: The time has come to the western farmers and 

 horticulturists to "gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost." 

 W^estern, as well as eastern, papers are asking the question : "Does 



