44G STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



in compost, whereby the seeds contained will be killed by the heat of ferment- 

 ation ; by hoeing, or otherwise destroying growing weeds before they mature 

 their seeds ; by inducing all the weeds to grow we can from seeds ah-eady in 

 the ground, and then kill them, if possible while in the seed leaf, as one man will 

 destroy more weeds than half a dozen will, after they have become large enough 

 to materially injure crops. The destruction of weeds is always in order. Let 

 none go to seed in fence corners, in pastures, or on the sides of the road, or 

 around stone heaps or other waste places. We must conquer weeds, or they 

 will conquer us. 



Mr. Pratt. — I never saw the milk weed thrive as it does here. It seems to be 

 different from that found south. North of here, among the Indians, it is rare, 

 though the soil is similar and there is quite as much neglect. So far as I 

 know, it is more abundant here than elsewhere. I have some hopes that it 

 will be exterminated, for if it is to be used as a substitute for rubber and there- 

 fore become valuable, it will disappear ; at least this is Beecher's theory. Has 

 :any one seen the honey bee on the flower of this weed ? The blow has a large 

 amount of sweet matter, and is said to make superior honey. 



Mr. Drew. — The common bees sometimes get it on their feet, but they can't 

 work the comb, and so avoid it. 



Mr. Porter. — On the Huron shore I have seen them at work on a small patch. 

 They grew in the sand, and very strong. They were able to keep the super- 

 abundant honey-making matter down. 



Mr. Curtis. — N'o subject is of more importance than the present one. The 

 annuals are not very formidable, may be, and are destroyed ; but the other, 

 with powerful roots, propagating from roots and seeds both, are a different 

 thing. The Canada thistle, for instance, should be persistently fought. In 

 some parts of the country they seem to have given up all hopes of subduing it. 

 To contemplate the future of this peninsula covered with thistles is fearful. 

 I know that they can be killed. Even the largest patch may be destroyed in 

 one year. Mr, Gray shows how to destroy them : cut their heads off — destroy 

 their lungs. In Illinois, in as forbidding a spot as you can find anywhere, they 

 grew and held the mastery. The ground was cleared, thoroughly plowed, and. 

 planted to potatoes, hoed often, and not one showed his head the year after. 

 Never allow a green leaf to form on them and you can kill them effectually, 

 perhaps easily as any other weed. It is often introduced in grass seed, and 

 then spreads rapidly. If there is not private enterprise enough to attack them, 

 we ought to tax ourselves and have it done. Milk weeds make no headway 

 on my farm. I pull them out by the roots. The terror of New York dairy- 

 men is the ox-eye daisy. It is harder to get rid of than the thistle, because 

 it spreads from the seed rapidly. It is here. Really, I am more afraid of it 

 and the thistle than of the curculio. As to the other weeds, — pig weed and 

 the like, — they are really no special detriment. They make us work our crops, 

 perhaps, but are really not much in the way ; but these terrors to saints and 

 sinners ought to be attended to promptly. If there is any law on this subject 

 it ought to be enforced with vigor. The more I think of the subject the more 

 important it seems to me. 



Mr. Pratt. — Perhaps the fact that down in Ohio where Mr. Curtis came from 

 they grow the Canada thistle, and not much else, makes him so solicitoua on 

 the subject; but seriously there seems to be no more trouble in exterminating 

 them than any other weed. Cutting off the tops at a certain time of the year 

 will destroy them. The white daisy will, I am told, ruin meadows. I am more 

 .afraid of them than of thistles. 



