THE PLANT 



SECTION XX WEEDS 



Have you ever noticed that some weeds are killed by 

 one particular method, while this same method may entirely 

 fail with other kinds of weeds ? If we wish to free our 

 fields of weeds with the greatest 

 ease, we must know the nature 

 of each kind of weed and then 

 attack it in the way that we can 

 most readily destroy it. 



The ordinary pigweed (Fig. 56) 

 differs from many other weeds in 

 that it lives for only one year. 

 When winter comes, it must die. 

 Each plant, however, bears a great 

 number of seeds. If we can pre- 

 vent the plant from making seed 

 in its first year, there will not be 

 many seeds to come up the next 

 season. In fact, only those seeds 

 that were too deeply buried in 

 the soil to come up the previous 

 spring will be left, and of these 

 two-year-old seeds many will 

 not germinate. During the 

 next season some old seeds will produce 



FIG. 56. PIGWEED 



plants, but 



the number will be very much diminished. If care be 

 exercised to prevent the pigweed from seeding again, 

 and the same watchfulness be continued for a few 

 seasons, the pigweed will be almost entirely driven from 

 our fields. 



