WEEDS. 83 



our most ornamental flowers have been discovered away 

 from the haunts of man, but whatever the form, color 

 or habit of plants, injurious to other crops or exhausting 

 the soil without profit, they are designated as w^eeds. 



Classification of Weeds. — These pestiferous 

 plants may be divided into three classes : Annuals, 

 developing seed and dying : ;e same season ; biennials, 

 taking two years to perfectly develop and produce seed, 

 and then die ; perennials, covering several seasons of 

 growth and seeding. These three classes may be di- 

 vided as respects the character of underground growth, 

 some producing surface roots, as rag weed, easily 

 pulled up, others producing rod-shaped roots, as wild 

 carrot, which can be extracted entire ; other bulbs, as 

 buttercups or garlic, very difficult of eradication, while 

 others are tubers, as coco grass, a troublesome class, and 

 still others, producing subterranean root-stems, as Can- 

 ada thistle, having numerous buds, each capable of 

 developing new plants. 



Destroying Weeds. — All these weeds, M'hen in 

 their first stages of growth, may be kept in check, if not 

 entirely destroyed, in the garden, by plucking them 

 when an inch or so high, or with a hoe or knife cutting 

 them off, or by disturbing the soil with a cultivator, by 

 turning under with a plow, or by smothering with mulcli 

 or waste material. Noxious weeds never should be per- 

 mitted to mature their seeds; if not destroyed they 

 should certainly be so cut down and kept cut down as to 

 prevent seed development. 



State Laws Respecting Weeds — In some 

 States there are legislative enactments requiring the 

 destruction of the Canada thistle, recognized everywhere 

 as one of the most persistent and dangerous of encroach- 

 ing weeds. It would be well if a similar statute was 

 adopted by all the States, and applied to other weeds, 

 as mustard, ox-eye daisy, wild carrot, which careless 



