FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 487 



When the farm is put down to clover, the owner must expect another 

 crop of cockleburs and velvet weed whenever it is again plowed up and put 

 in corn, but in a few years, following the method above suggested, the 

 cockleburs may be entirely eradicated. The farmer, however, will need to 

 keep constant watch provided his neighbors are careless. The introduction 

 of these weeds are the price we pay for not doing our best to educate all our 

 neighbors in the direction of good farming. 



WEEDS. 



W. H. Lewis ^ Before the Madison County Farmers'' Institute. 



' 'Cursed is the ground for thy sake; thorns also and thistles shall it bring 

 forth to thee." 



This seems to be the oldest mention of weeds and has by many been 

 regarded as accounting for their origin. While this may or may not be true, 

 it is very evident that in some manner weeds have originated, that they 

 have been universally disseminated, and that they are with us now in un- 

 welcome abundance. No effort will be made in this paper to enumerate or 

 to describe all troublesome weeds, or even those most numerous in Iowa. 

 The topic of weeds in general is too large for an occassion like the present. 



The question, what is a weed? First meets us and has I think been well 

 defined as, ' 'a plant out of its proper place . ' ' We have all seen examples that 

 plainly illustrate the definition, such for instance as hemp growing in fertile 

 spots by the roadside or wheat and rye growing in a field of strawberries; 

 so it may be safe to say that any plant growing in a place where it is not 

 wanted is in that place a weed. 



Weeds being with us, a little knowledge of the methods by which they 

 may increase, or be distributed ought to be useful to us. The method of 

 increase is I think in all cases by seed, and in the case of biennial or perennial 

 plants by the spread of the roots also. 



The seeds are distributed in many ways of which one of the most potent 

 is the wind. Light, downy, or winged seeds are very readily carried by the 

 wind and to a great distance, and even quite solid heavy seeds are swept up 

 by our powerful wintry winds from exposed and bare surfaces to that of the 

 snow upon which they are driven no one knows how far. 



Water is another large factor in the problem. The many channels that 

 are indispensable as means for removing surplus water after heavy rains — 

 the dead furrows, open drains at borders of the field or the farm, the draws 

 that traverse our prairies, the rivers, all of these places are the pathway of 

 streams of water and the water is a common carrier of seeds, and a common 

 carrier that does not recognize the restrictions of the interstate commerce law 

 or the regulations of any of the commissions or committees or associations 

 that have been provided or attempts to regulate the acts of common carriers. 

 Vehicles upon the road are active distributors. A lump of mud dropped 

 from the carriage of a visiting friend may contain a seed that introduces to 

 your farm a weed that you may never be able to exterminate. 



