ARID AGRICULTURE. 247 



inal diseases, weeds. Of the parasitic flowering 

 plants we need only speak of one, the dodder, or 

 "Love vine," of alfalfa. 



Weeds may cause direct injury to our live 

 stock, as the western squirrel tail grass, known 

 everywhere as "Fox tail," which gives animals 

 that eat the heads sore mouths. There are num- 

 erous burrs which injure wool by their presence. 

 Some weed seeds adulterate our crops, always 

 lowering their value and often making them 

 worse than valueless for seed again. Weeds 

 often harbor insects or make hiding places for 

 rodents that are a real menace to the farmer's 

 crop. The Colorado potato beetle was a native, 

 feeding on the Buffalo burr; but when potatoes 

 were planted, their tender leaves were more to 

 his taste and he became one of the greatest farm 

 pests. Mustard plants carry plant lice through 

 the winter, so they are ready to take to our cab- 

 bages and rutabagas as soon as we try to grow a 

 few for ourselves. 



As one of the worst things that could happen, 

 Job said, "Let thistles grow instead of wheat, 

 and cockle instead of barley.' 7 We shall never 

 be able entirely to get rid of weeds, but they are 

 worthy of the farmer's steel. "Weeds, like the 

 poor, we always have with us. * * * As 

 shiftlessness causes poverty and poverty induces 

 shiftlessness, so shiftlessness induces weeds and 

 weeds cause poverty now, just as they did in the 

 time of Solomon." (Aven Xelson.) A great 



