LOSSES ENTAILED BY RAISING WEEDS. 13 



They are closely related to or sometimes only varieties of those de- 

 scribed, and the differences in habits being small and remedies for 

 eradication practically the same, space was not taken for their 

 more extended mention. Some of them, however, are bad weeds, 9 

 belonging to Class I., 36 to Class II. and 32 to Class III. Of the 

 77, 31 are introduced and 46 native to Indiana, 7 of the 9 worst 

 ones being foreigners. 



If to the 46 worst weeds listed we add the 9 briefly charac- 

 terized, we have in the State 55 of the most aggressive of weeds. 

 Of these 41, or 75 per cent., are of foreign origin. About the same 

 proportion of alien weeds is seen by anyone who travels through 

 the Eastern States. In fact, America seems to be not only the 

 "home of the oppressed of all nations" but her soil seems to suit 

 exactly those weeds which are the offscourings and refuse of civil- 

 ization in all countries. As Grant Allen has well said: "In civi- 

 lized, cultivated and inhabited New England, and as far inland at 

 least as the Mississippi, the prevailing vegetation is the vegetation 

 of Central Europe, and that at its weediest. The daisy, the prim- 

 rose, the cowslip and the daffodil have stayed at home ; the weeds 

 have gone to colonize the New "World. For thistles and burdock, 

 dog-fennel and dead-nettle, hound's tongue and stick-seed, catnip 

 and dandelion, ox-eye daisy and cocklebur, America easily licks all 

 creation. All the dusty, noisome and malodorous pests of all the 

 world seem there to revel in one grand congenial democratic orgy. ' ' 



How WEEDS LESSEN THE OUTPUT OP THE FARM. 



The greatest question on earth to-day is, How long will the 

 soil feed the human race ? Any factor which will serve to increase 

 that time, even in small degree, is of great economic importance. 

 The population of Indiana is ever increasing. The number of 

 acres of land within her bounds will be the same as long as those 

 bounds remain as they are. To increase the output of the land 

 and make the gain in yield of farm products to some extent keep 

 pace with the increase in population is at present the leading 

 problem which the more intelligent farmers of the State are trying 

 to solve. One of the greatest factors in this problem is that of 

 weeds. It is a self-evident fact that in all parts of the State they 

 are in many ways a source of constant and heavy loss in the out- 

 put of the farm. Some of these ways are briefly set forth in the 

 following paragraphs: 



a. They rob the soil of much of that plant food so necessary 

 to the proper growth of cultivated crops. As a single example of 



