WEEDS 



botanizes very carefully along the seashore, or on river banks 

 where landslips have occurred, and in other such places 

 where bare ground exists which is not the result of cul- 

 tivation. 



There these weeds fulfil a very important and useful 

 purpose. The " red smear " of a landslip is soon tinted 

 green with Coltsfoot, Chickweed and the like, and the bare 

 earth, which was useless and supported no green covering, is 

 very soon made once more a part of the earth's fruitful field. 

 In such places the weeds are soon overcome and suppressed by 

 the regular woods, grass, or thicket of the district. 



It is far otherwise in arable land, where man desires to 

 keep the ground bare in order to give his own domestic 

 plants the best part of the soil. 



Let us look for a little at what actually happens in an 

 ordinary cornfield. It is not merely one generation of weeds, 

 but whole armies, that the farmer has to contend with. 



When the young corn is growing up (1) the bright yellow 

 Charlock grows much more rapidly, and the whole cornfield 

 is golden with it. The Charlock grows to some eighteen 

 inches high, flowers, and sets its seed before it is suppressed 

 by the growth of the cornstalks, which, of course, may be 

 three or four feet or more in height. 



(2) Another series of weeds, such as Spurrey, are growing 

 in the shelter of the tall stalks, and their flowers are ripened 

 and their seed scattered long before the corn is cut. 

 (3) Another series, such as Polygonums, etc., become ripe 

 and are about the length of the corn, so that when it is cut 

 and thrashed the seed of the Polygonum accompanies the 

 grain and is probably sown with it. (4) Then there are 

 such weeds as the False Oat grass, etc., which are taller than 

 the Oat, and whose seeds are blown off" and scattered all over 



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