HISTORY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 821 



tion for medicinal or other useful qualities, is designated by the 

 epithet weed. In an agricultural sense, the term is used with a 

 more restricted meaning, and is applied to those intrusive and un- 

 welcome individuals that will persist in growing where they are 

 not wanted, — in short, the best definition that has yet been given 

 of a weed is the old one, "a plant out of place." Most of the 

 weeds troublesome in our agriculture are immigrants, either from 

 the Old World, or from the warmer portions of this continent. 

 The number of plants indigenous to our country, that are entitled 

 to rank as pernicious weeds, is comparatively small. As the 

 aborigines disappear with the advance of the whites, so do the 

 native plants generally yield their possession as cultivation ex- 

 tends, and the majority of the plants to be met with along the 

 lanes and streets of villages, and upon farms, are naturalized 

 strangers, who appear to be quite at home, and are with difficulty 

 to be persuaded or driven away. 



Weeds are introduced upon a farm in a variety of ways. Many 

 have their seeds sown with those of the crops; this is particularly 

 the case where the seeds of the weeds and of the grain are so 

 nearly alike in size that their separation is difficult. Proper care 

 in procuring and preserving clean seed will often save much 

 future trouble and vexation. The observing farmer will notice 

 the means which nature has provided for the scattering of seeds, 

 and he will find that the most pernicious weeds seem to have been 

 especially furnished with contrivances to facilitate their dispersion. 

 The Clot-bur, Beggar's Lice, and others, have barbs or hooks by 

 which they adhere to clothing and the coats of animals, and are 

 widely distributed by this agency. All of the thistles, and many 

 others of the same family, have a tuft of fine silky hair attached 

 to the seed, or more properly fruit, by which they are buoyed upon 

 the air, and wafted from place to place. So numerous are the 

 ways by which seeds are dispersed, that, however careful a farmer 

 may be upon his own premises, a slovenly and neglectful neighbor 

 may cause him infinite annoyance by furnishing his lands with 

 an abundant supply. In some European countries a farmer may 

 sue his neighbor for neglecting to destroy the weeds upon his 

 lands, or may employ people to do it at the delinquent's expense. 



The vitality of seeds, particularly if buried in the earth below 

 the reach of the influences which cause germination, in some eases, 

 endures through many years ; hence, an old field, after deep plow- 

 ing, has often a fine crop of weeds from the seeds thus brought 

 to the surface. Weeds that have been cut or pulled after they 

 have flowered, should not be thrown into the barnyard or hog- 

 stye, unless the farmer wishes to have the work to do over again 

 with their progeny, as the seeds will be thoroughly distributed in 

 the manuring of the land. In England they dry the pernicious 

 weeds and burn them, not only destroying root and branch, but 

 seed also. 



