WEEDS 



underground and they go above, across lots and by the 

 highway. But like other tramps they find it safest by 

 highways. In the fields they are intercepted and cut off, 

 but on the public road every boy, every passing herd of 

 sheep or cows, gives them a lift;" all of which we shall find 

 literally true as we study individual weeds. 



I v et us begin with our earliest weeds. You remember 

 how quickly after the first rains, the malva, bur-clover and 

 filaree seedlings appeared. The malva was perhaps the 

 earliest, and these plucky little plants are rarely discouraged 

 by the droughts that often follow first rains. In the worst 

 of seasons, they are able to mature an abundance of the 

 little fruits that you call " cheeses," and every section of 

 the cheese contains a seed that is almost sure to germinate. 

 The seeds are small and are blown about far and wide with 

 the wayside dust, or are carried in mud that clings to 

 wheels or feet. Cattle rarely eat the plants if other food is 

 available, so the malva abounds in waste places and is 

 always straying into gardens and orchards. 



Bur-clover and filaree cover thousands of acres of 

 waste and pasture land in California. The foliage of the 

 bur-clover is bitter, and stock choose other food first ; but 

 if some shoots are eaten the plant quickly throws out 

 others, so it is pretty sure to produce a marvelous number of 

 fruits or burs. In summer time, when the rest of the plant 

 has dried, crumbled and nearly disappeared, the burs remain, 

 sometimes nearly an inch deep on the soil, forming what is 

 called a dry pasture ; for so nutritive are the seeds that 

 animals eat the fruits in spite of the prickles, and cattle 

 grow fat on hillsids that look brown and barren. So do 

 sheep if they are allowed to range in these dry pastures, 

 but usually the sheep men avoid them because wool is so 

 much damaged by the burs. Of course the sheep help to 

 distribute the burs that lie in heaps along the waysides. 

 The burs are sure to invade cultivated grounds also ; some- 



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