488 lOWA^DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The telephone is an active and efficient distributor of news and it is to be 

 an active and powerful agency in the increase and distribution of weeds. 

 There are in this county four hundred and sixty three miles of telephone. 

 This means that there are four hundred and sixty-three miles of a strip not 

 less than six feet wide along our roads that will be given up to the produc- 

 tion and distribution of weeds. It can not be plowed, the mowing machine 

 can not reach it, it is not likely to be cut with a hoe or mowed with a scythe, 

 and the results will be a fearful increase in the noxious weeds in the country. 

 The telephone companies have been allowed to take possession of our roads 

 without restriction or control and many unpleasant things are already in 

 sight as a result of it. Packing material has brought some very bad weeds 

 to us from distant parts of the world, and imported seeds and plant have 

 brought to us seeds and insects that go far to offset any benefits we may 

 have derived from their introduction. 



There may be other means of introduction and distribution of weeds, but 

 those enumerated are surely enough. Now what shall we do to cambat this, 

 threatening and powerful evil? It was once said of a different matter, "All 

 things are lawful, but all things are not expedient." It is expedient, how- 

 ever, to prevent the production of seed, and this is probably one of the most 

 effective means of control, and really is the entire means of control. Cultiva- 

 tion of our crops seems with most of us the removal ©f the weeds, and 

 the succession of weeds is such that their removal occupies the entire 

 season. Early in the season tools having numerous teeth are most 

 effective, the young plants having weak hold upon the ground are 

 easily dislodged and being so small as to retain no reserve of moisture, 

 are almost instantly killed by the wind and sun, so we find that a harrow 

 with its many tooth points and its wide sweep is very effective. Later in 

 the season the case is different and a harrow among larger weeds is 

 an excellent illustration of the Darwinian theory of the survival of the fittest, 

 as it destroys only the belated weaklings and loosens the soil so as to stimu- 

 late a more vigorous growth of the stronger ones, while the removal of the 

 weak ones makes the struggle of the stronger ones remaining less arduous, 

 and fits them for producing a more abundant and productive crop of seeds. 

 We find later in the season that the weeds that have escaped death by the har- 

 row or other similar toothed tools need a different class of tools to destroy 

 them. We must have something that digs deeper and has a wider blade. 

 A weed that has a deep root takes such a hold upon the ground that it holds 

 by its tip while its upper part is pushed aside by the passing cultivator tooth, 

 so it comes to pass that while, as a matter of theory, a harrow or a weeder 

 used so early that no weed has developed more than its first pair of leaves, 

 and successively used as often as later germinating seeds reach the same 

 stage, will keep the ground perfectly free from weeds, is found to be not 

 quite true that inequalities of surface and other causes protect a part of the 

 weeds and we soon find a formidable crop of very vigorous weeds, such as 

 no tool of that class can destroy. Plainly, then, a tool making a deeper and 

 wider cut must be used. Pointed shovels ought to be avoided. They take 

 hold well but usually cut only a part of their width and at the end of the 

 strip supposed to be covered with the travel of the blade, will be found a line 

 of weeds not cut and so lightly covered that their heads are soon out and 

 they are growing more vigorously than ever. A tool whose blades are of 



