THE PENINSULA. FARMERS' CLUB. 447 



Mr. Ladd. — Where I came from the daisy was abundant, but where farming 

 is well done they are not troublesome. They may be all about you and yet 

 your own farm free from them. I once sowed daisy in grass seed, but dug 

 them up and none have appeared since. As to milk weed, if the land is 

 thoroughly cultivated they may be exterminated in one year. I killed the 

 thistle on Mr. Paige's land by cutting off the stalk a little below the surface 

 and applying salt, and have never seen a thistle since. 



Mr. B. Montague. — -They can be killed where you can cultivate, but they 

 will thrive in meadows and pastures. I have seen them killed in meadows 

 when cut at the proper time, say when the stalk is hollow; if rain follows the 

 water reaches the root and destroys it. The thistles on Mr. Golden's came 

 from New York in grass seed. Inside of his fence he has retarded the growth, 

 but those in the road have not been disturbed for some time. The law 

 requires the pathmaster to attend to them, even on another's farm, and charge 

 him for the labor. The white daisy will propagate from eyes, but more rapidly 

 from seeds. It will run out the grass in meadows. If allowed to grow in any 

 rough place it will soon spread over the farm. Cattle and birds spread it. 

 You must dig it out by the roots. In New York in sections one-fourth the 

 hay is white daisy. If the patch of daisy on the Rushmore place were in New 

 York it would spread over the whole farm. Johnswort is also a bad weed, but 

 not equal to the daisy. 



Mr. Pratt. — It has been intimated here, that if it were not for the weeds we 

 wouldn't half work, wouldn't begin to raise so many potatoes. Now I don't 

 like such an idea to go abroad. It is a reflection on our industrious habits, 

 and I have half a mind to move to expunge all that sort of talk from the report ; 

 but as the enterprise and industry of Peninsula farrLers is well known, it can 

 do no harm. Two or three years of good cultivation will exterminate 

 johnswort even if it covers the whole ground, at least on our soil. 



Mr. Gray. — I wish to explain. Generally we say the " weeds are getting the 

 start;" and so we go to work among our crops. Farmers are busy men, and 

 perhaps but for the weeds some crops would be neglected. 



Mr. Archer. — When a small patch of Canada thistles is at stake, the best way 

 to get rid of the same would be to pull them up. Each stalk pulled up pulls 

 out an eye from the main root. Thoroughly attended to for one season will 

 go a great way towards exterminating the same. A small boy, at no great 

 expense, with something in the way of a glove to shield his hand, will do the 

 work 



Mr. Tracy. — I am not very familiar with the thistle; but the witch grass, 

 quite similar to the wheat plant, is one of the very worst weeds, especially in 

 clay soil, though it will grow in sandy soil. I have taken a root of this plant 

 and exposed it for a month to the hot sun, but when placed in the ground it grew 

 again. A well known nurseryman set grafts on a piece of ground not used for 

 thirty years, but allowed to remain in grass. He set twenty-five acres of 

 grafts, but the witch grass came up and they were obliged to plow up the 

 whole nursery, and cultivate the ground for a year or two. We get trees from 

 that section, and must be careful. It is more persistent of life than the thistle. 

 We can keep that down by cutting off the tops; not so with the witch grass : 

 the roots will live for years. They must be dug up, the whole of them, and 

 destroyed. In England they use very heavy tools to work among them. The 

 radical leaves make coarse hay, but it is comj)aratively valueless. If it is any- 

 thing like as difficult to eradicate here as elsewhere, we must be on our guard. 



