47 



Ohio is over a half million dollars, and this is a very 

 moderate estimate. On some roads it takes 20 per 

 cent, of sectionmen's time to attend to weeds. I have 

 a number of letters from supervisors giving the cost 

 due to weeds in terms of the distance and time. And 

 all this expense simply for appearance sake. 



To the railroad, weeds only effect the aesthetic 

 side. The unsightly, unkept appearance of weeds is 

 general along all highways, canals aud railroads. 

 The direct injury to the materials of a railroad due to 

 weeds is trifling, except one called fungi and other 

 cryptogamic life weeds. Fungi hasten the life of ties, 

 but this is small compared to the destruction caused 

 by the alternate expansion and contraction of the 

 wood-fibres when wet or dry, and the freezing of 

 water in the pores in winter, thus bursting the wood- 

 cells. 



In the North-eastern part of the United States, the 

 portion included between 100th meridian and the 

 Atlantic, and Canada and Tennessee, there are about 

 3,300 species of seed plants. Of this number 2,900 

 are native and 400 introduced. Of these 400 introduced 

 plants, perhaps 75 per cent, may be classed as weeds. 

 The proportion of native plants which are weeds is 

 not more than 10 per cent. The number of species of 

 all plants growing in Eastern Ohio might reach 1,500. 

 of this number nearly 300 are weeds, in the railroad 

 sense. 



The seeds of these foreign stragglers are brought 

 in various ways : packages of vegetable and flower 

 seeds, in clover, grass and grain seed. Seeds with 

 prickly coatings, like burdock, become attached to the 

 fur of animals and carried in wool. Seeds with 

 glutinous coverings are carried by the feet of birds. 

 Many hard-coated seeds not ground up in the food of 

 animals and not attacked by their digestive organs 

 and spread in their dung. 



Western hay, straw and grains bring many 

 western and prairie forms to the east and vice versa. 



