NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



BIRDS AND WEEDS 



" By the sweat of thy brow thou shalt earn thy 

 daily bread." 



This is as it should be, for Nature has no use for 

 those who neither work with their brain nor their hands. 

 The ignorant boor works like an ox to produce a small 

 return. The intelligent man avails himself of all 

 manner of things to lighten his labours, and to enable 

 him to get the largest possible return for his energy. 



The time, energy, and money dissipated in warring 

 against weeds are vast. Out in the wilds, weeds serve 

 good and useful purposes, but in cultivated lands they 

 are a pest ; and, should we relax our onslaughts, they 

 overspread our lands and crowd out the crops. To 

 prevent the choking to death of the produce of our 

 fields, we are obliged to constantly attack the weeds 

 with harrows, hoes, sickles, and ploughs. The labour 

 is never-ending, for the land is full of weed seeds 

 which retain their vitality for years. It is impossible 

 completely to free cultivated lands from weeds even 

 by constantly destroying them before they mature their 

 seed. 



Weeds have evolved a protection against such a 

 contingency. Every plant struggles as purposefully 

 and as intelligently to safeguard its species against 

 extinction as does any form of animal life, including 

 man. 



Many kinds of weeds provide their seeds with 

 various ingenious contrivances by which they are 



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