252 



GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



'Jililiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii:iiii{iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiMiii:i!ii! iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimi;ii'iiiiiiiiiiiiiM[iiiiiiiii[iiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiii!iiiiii;iiiiiiiiiii!ii:i»i:iiiii iiiiiiiiniiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiimiiii i iiii[[iiiimimiiiii:iiii;iiii:iiii;iiN;iiiriiii;im;im:mrnffliiiiiiiii'iiii: iii!imiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiijiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii|i| 



I A Lesson on Weeds and Their Control | 



j With Some Points Upon the Value of Crop Cultivation | 



I Being One of a Series of Lessons of a Home Study Course on Giirdeniui:. Appearing Regularly in The Gardeners' Chronicle 1 



I Under the Direction of ARTHUR SMITH | 



SiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiNiiiL'iiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiinniiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiniiii iimi iiiiniiiininiinuiniiiiiiiiiiiiniiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiNiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinininiiiiniinnnmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^^ 



WHILE it may be a practical impossibility to eliminate 

 weeds entirely from our gardens and farms, their exis- 

 tence, to the extent which is too frequently seen, is the 

 result of neglect. 



As with many other troubles, prevention is better than cure, 

 and the old proverb, "One year's seeding makes seven years' 

 weeding" errs, if at all, only on the side of being too conser- 

 vative. For this reason we frequently have to tight the incubus 

 of the past, and it is easy to know in looking over a garden 

 whether weeds have been allowed to seed on it in the past 

 or not. 



While the point holds good in all gardening matters, in 

 nothing is the continual expert planning and care year after 

 year by the same individual more productive of good results 

 than in connection with weeds ; but the cumulative benefits of 

 years of care may be entirely lost by one year's neglect. 



The greater part of the trouble with weeds is brought about 

 by the too prevailing idea that when the cropping season is 

 over in the Autumn the garden may be left to care for itself, 

 with the result that the ground is well seeded for the weed 

 crop of the following season. There are many matters of vital 

 importance connected with Autumn gardening, of which not the 

 least is the prevention of weed seeding. Neglect of this at any 

 season makes the task of eradication simply terrible, and in 

 the meantime, every crop on the ground will suffer. No system 

 of garden management is more wasteful and expensive than 

 that of laying off men early in the Fall and of neglecting the 

 garden during that season. While no real gardener will, if he 

 can help it, allow a weed to go to seed upon his place at any 

 season, the seeds which fall upon the ground in the Autumn 

 will not germinate as a rule until the following Spring, so that 

 there will be no opportunity to kill the resulting seedlings until 

 the crops are growing in the Spring. Neglecting gardens in the 

 Autumn, and of course at any time, is always an extravagance, 

 as the removal of the results of such neglect is more costly than 

 the preventing of such results from coming into existence. 



The importance of keeping weeds in sulijection can not be 

 emphasized too strongly in connection with both farming and 

 gardening. Weeds damage crops in many ways. They deprive 

 crops of moisture, plant food and sunlight. Even on excep- 

 tionally rich soil with plenty of moisture the detrimental effects 

 of them is equally as great as under reverse conditions: this is 

 most likely due to their toxic effects, the roots of weeds giving 

 off substances which are poisonous to the plants we are culti- 

 vating. A still greater reason for their harmful effects is that 

 their roots interfere with the root development of the roots of 

 the cultivated plants. 



It does not appear necessary to discuss at any length the 

 question, what is a weed? Most people know them only too 

 well, although there are some self-styled gardeners who are unable 

 to distinguish weeds from other plants, and who in weeding 

 a garden frequently root them both up. A weed has been defined 

 as a plant growing in the wrong place : as, for example, a potato 

 growing" in a rose garden would be treated as a weed. Another 

 example of a plant being in one position extremely valuable and 

 in others a most noxious weed is to be found in the perennial 

 Southern Wire Grass (Capriola dactylon), which is most difficult 

 to control and eradicate among cultivated plants, yet at the same 

 time is one of the most valuable plants for pasture and without 

 it some of the Southern pastures would be almost worthless. 

 However, generally speaking, plants popularly known as weeds 

 are those which are wild and indigenous to the district, and 

 which come up among cultivated crops. 



Some idea of the nature of a soil may be gathered from the 

 species of weeds common to it. To give two examples : where 

 Sheep Sorrel (Runicx acctosella) is present in any quantity we 

 may be sure the soil is acid and that lime is needed, while 

 the prevalence of Horsetails (Eqiiistcum />.) points to the neces- 

 sity for subsoil drainage. It does not, however, necessarily fol- 

 low that lime and drainage inay not he required when these 

 weeds are absent. 



Weeds, even under conditions which are more or less adverse 

 to other plants, are able to maintain their existence mainly 

 because they are indigenous to the district. Some weeds pro- 

 duce immense quantities of seeds, which mature in most cases 

 in a very short time and upon the weed plants even if cut 

 when ihcy are only just coming into flower; some have seeds 



which are difficult to separate from crop seeds and are there- 

 fore frequently introduced with the latter : some possess roots 

 or root-stocks that are perennial. Weeds persist, therefore, be- 

 cause they are well equipped by nature in one or more ways 

 to more than hold their own in the struggle for existence. The 

 remarkable vigor and prolificacy possessed by weeds would 

 enable them to soon overcome most cultivated plants but for 

 the aid of the cultivator, and it naturally follows that promp, 

 efficient, and persistent efforts are essential to their control 

 upon cultivated grounds. Many people do not realize what an 

 enormous number of seeds are produced by weeds, the number 

 varying with different species from several hundreds to twenty 

 or more thousand seeds per plant. Moreover, in any season 

 of the year, these seeds, if allowed to fall upon the soil, do 

 not all germinate at once, but delay germinating for a period 

 which may extend over several years, hence the previously 

 mentioned old saying. "One year's seeding makes seven years' 

 weeding." 



Like other plants, weeds may be divided into three classes 

 with reference to the period of their natural life : annual, those 

 which live but one season and which die as soon as they have 

 produced seed : biennial, those that live two years, growing 

 rather slowly the first year, producing usually a tap-root and 

 a rosette of leaves close to the ground, sending up flower-stems 

 the second year and then dying. Naturally this class produces 

 seed only upon ground which has been left undisturbed for at 

 least two seasons ; and perennial, those which live an indefinite 

 number of years. These last produce underground parts which 

 live over after the tops have died down, spread in the soil and 

 produce new growth the following year. They are therefore 

 the most tenaceous of life and are the most difficult to eradicate 

 when the soil has beeii allowed to become infested with them, 

 as in most cases the smallest piece of their roots will, if left 

 in the soil, produce a new plant. The imderground parts are 

 of various kinds ; they may consist of long, creeping, more or 

 less horizontal, roots, as in the case of the Canada Thistle : 

 or the underground parts may consist of root-stocks or under- 

 ground stems, as in the cases of quack-grass and morning glory. 

 These parts may also consist of bulbs which increase by splitting 

 up. like the wild onion : or they may be more or less in the form 

 of tap-roots, as with the dandelion. Obviously a knowledge of 

 the life history of weeds will assist us in carrying out intelli- 

 gently the most effective measures of control and eradication. 



In considering methods for the killing of and clearing the 

 ground from, weeds, we must first remember that it is far more 

 important to avoid having weeds to kill, and the aim should be 

 lo prevent rather than to cure the evil. 



The annual and biennial classes may he considered as one, and 

 soil may ultimately be made practically free of them by not 

 allowing weeds to seed upon it, and in preventing weed seeds 

 from being brought in on to it. While the former is easy, 

 unfortunately the latter is to some extent at least, not entirely 

 possible. 



If we do not allow a single weed to seed upon our own ground, 

 seeds may he blown in from the gardens of less careful neigh- 

 bors, from waste groimds and roadsides, they may be brought 

 in among cultivated plant seeds and with stable manure. While 

 all these possibilities militate against the probability of possessing 

 a garden upon which weeds never appear, yet. all together, the 

 resulting weeds from them is never one hundredth part as great 

 as those arising from weeds seeding themselves upon the ground 

 itself. 



The first step in killing weeds arising from seed is to kill 

 them before they appear. 



There is always an interval of time in the case of all seeds 

 between the commencement of the process of germination of 

 a seed and the appearance of the resulting plant ttpon the sur- 

 face. The continual cultivation of the ground between crops 

 and individual plants without waiting for the weeds to appear, 

 is the only way to approach, what every gardener should strive 

 for, a weedless garden. An hour's sunshine will destroy freshly 

 germinated seeds when exposed to it. while it might require more 

 than a day to kill weeds which have been allowed to grow to 

 any size and in the meantime rain could possiblj' cause them 

 to root again. To arrive at and maintain that condition of 

 cleanliness which is the attribute of a real garden, it will obvi- 

 ously be necessary to pul) weeds by hand from positions that 



