THE NEW EARTH 



same extermination he now must wage against 

 this tireless foe of the race. 



While man through all the centuries, in a 

 more or less successful way, has been combat- 

 ting these enemies, and while, in America 

 alone, he has spent hundreds of millions of 

 dollars for fighting armament in the form of 

 countless machines combining weed destruc- 

 tion with cultivation, he has yet been com- 

 pelled to go further than this wholly individual 

 effort and turn his attention to legislative 

 action. Not all men who gain their living 

 from the earth have taken note of the danger; 

 few indeed, even of those who have studied 

 most closely have ever come to any adequate 

 comprehension of its magnitude, though, as 

 knowledge has broadened, there have been 

 many who have come to a realization of the 

 imperative necessity of concerted action. So, 

 to safeguard the many from the neglect of the 

 few, laws have been enacted, stringently en- 

 forced, for the prevention and eradication of 

 these foes. It would be of interest, did space 

 permit, to show how widespread has been leg- 

 islative action against weeds by the individual 

 states during the last fifteen years. 



116 



