THE NEW INSPIRATION. 367 



duced to insignificant proportions, and to-day practically all 

 that remains of the weed is a faint memory of the damage it 

 formerly did. Equally successful have the botanists been in 

 preventing the introduction of noxious weeds into uninfested 

 localities. By means of a wide correspondence, information 

 is constantly received as to the distribution of our worst 

 weeds, and maps plainly indicating their present range are 

 constructed and kept on file. If at any time information is 

 received that one of these weeds has appeared far from its 

 limits as shown upon the map, the local authorities are at once 

 apprised of the fact, and the importance of eradicating it to- 

 gether with the best means of doing so is suggested. The au- 

 thorities of California were informed that the Russian thistle 

 was growing at a certain railway station and were advised to 

 root it out. They complied with the suggestion at once, ap- 

 pointed a special agent to traverse the lines of the State upon 

 a tour of inspection, and wherever the thistle was found it was 

 extirpated. Nothing more has been heard of it in that State. 

 Similarly, the woolly mullein was found at a certain point in 

 Kentucky. A man was sent to look into the case and report. 

 The authorities of the State were notified and the region 

 cleaned. It is evident that if this method could have been 

 pursued in the Northwest when the Russian thistle first made 

 its appearance in that region, many millions of dollars would 

 have been saved to the farmers of that part of the country, 

 besides an immense amount of labor and apprehension. 



It is the botanists who have made possible the extraordinary 

 increase in the forage crops of the country ; the botanists who 

 are giving us our new and wonderful varieties of wheat and 

 other grains, our new varieties of roots and fruits and flowers ; 

 it is the botanists who are giving freely to the farmers of the 



