16 THE INDIANA WEED BOOK. 



plant food. Their greatest benefit, however, lies in the fact that 

 they induce frequent and thorough cultivation of the soil, thus 

 increasing largely the output of any crop which may be grown. 

 On this point L. H. Bailey maintains: '"That weeds always have 

 been and still are the closest friends and helpmates of the farmer. 

 It was they which first taught the lesson of the tillage of the soil, 

 and it is they which never allow the lesson, now that it has been 

 partly learned, to be forgotten. The one only and sovereign rem- 

 edy for them is the very tillage which they have introduced. "When 

 their mission is finally matured, therefore, they will disappear, be- 

 cause there will be no place in which they can grow. It would be 

 a great calamity if they were now to disappear from the earth, 

 for the greater number of farmers still need the discipline which 

 they enforce. Probably not one farmer in ten would till his lands 

 well if it were not for these painstaking schoolmasters, and many 

 of them would not till at all. Until farmers till for tillage's sake, 

 and not to kill the weeds, it is necessary that the weeds shall exist, 

 but when farmers do till for tillage's sake, then weeds will dis- 

 appear with no effort of ours. ' ' 



THE WEEDS OF CITIES AND TOWNS. 



Weeds are not only a curse to the farmer but the city resident 

 is also greatly troubled with them. Many an hour does he spend 

 on his lawns, grubbing dandelions and other pests^which are fight- 

 ing the blue-grass, while in his alleys and backyards many an un- 

 sightly species is constantly attempting to grow and ripen its 

 seeds. In all cities, and especially in and about country towns, 

 there are numerous vacant lots and commons which each year pro- 

 duce nothing but a big crop of the vilest of weeds. The largest 

 patch of Canada thistle which the writer ever saw was on one of 

 these waste places in the city of Indianapolis Prickly lettuce and 

 sow-thistles, cockleburs and horse-weed, burdock and bull thistles, 

 spiny amaranth and pigweed, dog-fennel and Mexican tea, sweet- 

 clovers and wild mustard, jimson- weeds and wild carrots grow 

 rankly on these lots and form dense thickets through which a per- 

 son can scarcely force his way. Being for the most part level these 

 city or town lots have at some time been cultivated and the orig- 

 inal growth of grass and trees removed, lea.ving a surface excel- 

 lently adapted to these worst of migratory weeds. Their seeds are 

 introduced in many ways, more easily indeed than in the open 

 country, for here rubbish of all kinds is dumped, such as bedding 

 from stables and stock cars, packing from about china and glass- 



