■22« ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



REPORT OF THE BOTANIST. 



By Prof. W. a. Buckhout, state ColleQe, Pa. 



During the year 1902 the Botanist has answered inquiries upon 

 various matters connected with plants and plant life. The most 

 frequent and important were as follows: 



1. Specimens of weeds were sent for naming and for directions 

 how best to eradicate them. The range of kinds was not large, 

 nor did it include any which were really new to farmers and gard- 

 eners generally, although in many cases new to the senders. Re- 

 plies to these letters have been necessarily of the same general 

 character, inasmuch as it is doubtful whether there are any specific 

 methods of weed destruction which are practicable on a large scale. 

 Rotation of crops, clean cultivation and fertile soil will ordinarily 

 sufiBce to crowd out or prevent the entrance of weeds. Indeed, the 

 presence of troublesome weeds means that one or more of these 

 factors is lacking. The process of weed eradication may require 

 some years of patient labor, owing to the difficulty of getting some 

 soils into the fertile condition and in establishing a rotation of 

 crops, but no other methods are satisfactory. 



All who are interested in this matter should send to the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, for Farmer's Bulletin. 

 "Weeds and How to Kill Them." This gives the gist of the whole 

 weed question. If the farmers in a given community would unite 

 in a war against weeds, including cutting those upon highways and 

 uncultivated lands so as to prevent seeding, two years would show 

 a marked reduction in weed injury with cleaner fields and better 

 food crops. 



One correspondent, intending to make some changes iu his yard, 

 raises the query what efi:'ect, if any, will be caused by filling in 

 earth about his fruit and ornamental trees. This inquiry is perti- 

 nent, since experience plainly shows that any change of grade or 

 level about trees is a check and injury to them. To remove surface 

 earth, thus bringing roots nearer to the air, is generally'understood 

 to be an injury, but many persons seem not to have learned that 

 filling in earth about a tree, thus removing its roots to deeper level, 

 is fully as injurious. Sometimes it is sought to minimize the injury 

 by making the filling largely of stone or gravel and by building up 

 a wall about the trunk of the tree. The result is seldom satisfac- 



