No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 353 



ting of the yellow clover will often hasten the process of replace- 

 ment, but should this not avail, resort must be had to plowing down 

 and reseeding. 



Special care should be taken that the seed used be clean and good, 

 and that the ground be in condition to make a good seed-bed and 

 thus favor quick germination. This is the whole secret, if such term 

 may be used, for destroying undesirable plants, or weeds, and estab- 

 lishing strong, resistant growths of desirable and mote useful 

 grasses and clovers. It is true, this is not always an easy thing to 

 do, but it is what should be aimed at, and the details of the process 

 must be left for each one to supply, according to his conditions and 

 surroundings. 



With the Orange hawkweed, or "paint-brush," the case is much 

 more difficult, since the weed is more aggressive and is very much 

 at home in our lighter soils, where it crowds out the better pasture 

 and meadow grasses, unless prompt measures are taken to dispos- 

 sess it. It is idle to attempt to do anything in this instance except 

 to plow the sod-lands and reseed them, preferably after a year or two 

 of cultivation. The worst case of all is where small, close-growing 

 creeping weeds, such as certain chickweeds and speedwells, permeate 

 lawns, and gradually gain such complete possession that the beauty 

 and serviceability of the lawn are ruined. Slight cases may yield to 

 careful and persistent weeding, joined to watering and top-weeding 

 with fertilizers, but, when the weed tenants have well entrenched 

 themselves, nothing short of the plowing and reseeding process will 

 avail, no matter how inconvenient or undesirable it may be on some 

 accounts. There is nothing new in this. I repeat it, because I am 

 convinced of its soundness, and have no faith in any of the special 

 means of weed eradication. They are applicable and advisable 

 only under particular circumstances, which do not inhere in the three 

 instances named. The curious parasitic plant, dodder, was again 

 reported several times from clover fields. Fortunately, it is not of 

 very common occurrence in our State, and, when it is found, seldom 

 covers any but small patches, here and there, of but a few square 

 yards area. Within them it may grow profusely, and choke out 

 everything which it touches. The whole tangled growth should be 

 mowed and removed before its seeding can take place. It is not 

 likely to appear a second year. It reproduces only from seed, and 

 poor clover seed is probably always responsible for dodder in our 

 climate. 



Of plant diseases, I get various fragmentary examples, almost in- 

 variably too late to be of any service to the senders, and, sometimes, 

 of such diseases as permit of no remedial measures at all. While my 

 replies may thus be of no direct service at the time, they should lead 

 to a more careful attention of farmers and fruit growers to the de- 

 tails of their business, so as to recognize the first appearance of a 

 disorder, and thus apply in time such remedial or destructive mea- 

 sures as experience has determined best. The apathy and indiffer- 

 ence in this regard are surprising, even in the simpler matter of in- 

 sect attack. Many nurserymen and orchardists have never even 

 seen the San Jose" Scale, although it may be present on, and already 

 injuring their trees. As well might a horesman expect to succeed 

 in dealing in horses if he did not know the appearance of ringbone 

 or spavin. It is "the stitch in time that saves nine" of plant dis- 



