A BUNCH OF HERBS. 219 



a part of her economy to keep the ground constantly 

 covered with vegetation of some sort, and she has 

 layer upon layer of seeds in the soil for this purpose, 

 and the wonder is that each kind lies dormant until 

 it is wanted. If I uncover the earth in any of my 

 fields, ragweed and pigweed (Amaranth) spring up ; 

 if these are destroyed, harvest grass, or quack grass, 

 or purslane, appears. The spade or plow that turns 

 these under it is sure to turn up some other variety, 

 as chickweed, sheep-sorrel, or goose-foot. The soil 

 is a store-house of seeds. 



The old farmers say that wood-ashes will bring in 

 the white clover, and it will ; the germs are in the 

 soil wrapped in a profound slumber, but this stimulus 

 tickles them until they awake. Stramonium has 

 been known to start up on the site of an old farm 

 building, when it had not been seen in that locality 

 for thirty years. I have been told that a farmer 

 somewhere in New England, in digging a well came 

 at a great depth upon sand like that of the sea-shore; 

 it was thrown out, and in due time there sprang from 

 it a marine plant. I have never seen earth taken 

 from so great a depth that it would not before the 

 end of the season be clothed with a crop of weeds. 

 Weeds are so full of expedients, and the one engross- 

 ing purpose with them is to multiply. The wild 

 onion multiplies at both ends, at the top by seed, and 

 At the bottom by offshoots. Toad-flax travels under 

 ground and above ground. Never allow a seed to 

 ripen and yet it will cover your field. Cut off the 



