CHAPTER XV. 



Weeds. 



An old adage among the English wheat growers is, 

 "that the greatest weed in wheat is wheat/' implying 

 that a plant of wheat properly developed must have 

 room, that crowding by another, even of its own species, 

 is injurious, and that a plant so crowding another is a 

 weed. . A weed, then, is a plant out of place, not neces- 

 sarily a noxious plant, or a wild plant. 



The ordinary understanding adopts the term weed 

 to designate an unattractive plant, without special value. 

 On the farm the term weed is used to designate an 

 intruder among cultivated crops, an uninvited guest. 

 As a rule, those plants recognized as weeds are of foreign 

 origin, the seed being brought to this country through 

 commerce, transported here with other seeds, or in pack- 

 ing material of hay or straw. As an example may be 

 cited the one hundred new plants which appeared and 

 were scattered all over Fairmount Park after the Cen- 

 tennial Exhibition, which were mainly from the forty 

 countries represented. The delicate ones succumbed 

 under our cold winter; many of the hardy ones still 

 exist, spreading far and wide over the surrounding 

 country. 



It is a curious fact to note that foreign weeds have 

 taken a firmer i)lace in our own garden and field than 

 our aboriginal weeds, which have disappeared before the 

 march of the invader as native tribes have succumbed 

 before the descendants of the Europeans. All of our 

 cultivated plants have their wild originals, and many of 



