4. By man. Man himself, however, has most to do with the 

 spread of troublesome weeds, chiefly through the agency of railroads, 

 implements, farm yaid manure, feed stutts, and impure seed 



Many weeds are carried from one province or country to another 

 in the fodder and litter used by animals in transit on railways and in 

 grain carried by rail. More or less of the grain, litter, and fodder are 

 scattered at places alon«: the track, and at stations where grain and 

 animals are unloaded and cars cleaned out. Weeds thus get a start 

 and spread to neighbouring farms. The Russian Thistle was intro- 

 duced in this way. 



The constant changing of implements, with dry earth, pieces of 

 sod, etc., attached to them,'from tield to field, and from one faim to 

 another, is a common method of spreading weed seeds all oyer farms 

 and throughout whole neighborhoods ; and threshing machines from 

 dirty farms are well knowm sources of trouble under this head. 



Fresh farmyard manure fron. city stables is very often full of 

 weed seeds, and should be rotted or piled and allowed to heat thor- 

 • oughly before it is applied to clean land. Wild lettuce, for example, 

 wa's brought from Toronto to the neighborhood of Burlington in 

 manure ; and in this w^ay many other pests have been distributed 

 from towns and cities to the farms of the Province. 



A Few Facts Regarding Weed Seeds in Clover 

 AND Grass Seeds. 



Of many hundreds of samples of commercial clover and grass 

 seeds which' were analyzed at the Agricultural College during the 

 last two or three years, very few were free from noxious w* ed seeds. 

 Many samples were fovl, and there is no doubt that the sowing of an 

 immense number of weed seeds accounts largely for the alarming 

 spread of noxious weeds in recent years. The analyses made by the 

 Department of Agriculture at Ottawa confirm those made at the 

 College. 



To give an idea ot the foulness of many of the samples analyzed 

 the following statements of some of the results may be valuable : In 

 1894, each of 12 samples of clover out of 60 contained 200 weed seeds 

 to the ounce ; another and the worst sample contained 9,080 weed 

 seeds per ounce of clover seed. In 1902, fifty samples of clover and 

 timothy w^ere examined, and the percentage purity of the red clover 

 seed ranged from 72 to 97 per cent. One sample contained 10,538 

 weed seeds per pound ! In 1903, over 150 samples were examined, 

 and the results were just as startling. 



The following weed seeds were found in common red clover: 

 rib-grass, curled dock, green foxtail, lamb's quarters, Canada thistle 

 white cockle, broad-leafed plantain, false flax, shepherd's purse, worm- 

 seed mustard, ragweed, mayweed, sheep sorrel, black medick, pepper 

 grass, ox-eye daisy, and chicory. 



