526 Home Nature-Study Course, 



When I am working in the garden I fancy I am a " trust buster/' 

 to use a colloquialism of the present hour, in that I am working in the 

 interests of the weaker plants by destroying the stronger ones we 

 call weeds. 



When I see a cultivated crop in a swamp of weeds I realize that the 

 former unaided, cannot meet the competition of the latter as opposing 

 monopolists. " Why is it that one variety of plant is capable of robust 

 growth and able to gain an occupation in the soil over others ? " Often 

 when such is the case we call the stronger plants weeds. I might be able 

 to answer your question if I were able to give you a clear reason why 

 a goat will thrive under conditions where a fine blooded sheep will starve. 



Every summer I raise a patch of carrots for my old horse, Tom, and 

 that, too, at the expense of much backache. I get another backache in 

 the extermination of the wild carrots out in the meadow and along the 

 dusty roadside. 



This latter is the progenitor of the garden carrot. I find myself 

 working about as hard to promote the growth of one as I am in the 

 extermination of the other. For utilitarian purposes the garden carrot 

 has by plant breeding been developed into an abnormal plant and stands in 

 the place of the sheep, wliile its foremother represents the goat. 



