QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 169 



942. Q. I have just purchased a farm iu Delaware and upon it find a Weeds. 

 varied assortment of weeds, which have for years held such undisputed 

 possession that they seem to resist my efforts to eradicate them. What 



shall I do? 



A. You must decide to become master of the situation, and the first 

 thing to do is to study the habits of weeds. Their seeds are so often so 

 thoroughly protected by envelopes of oily and starchy matter as to 

 retain their vitality for years ; some seeds freely sprouting when brought 

 to the surface after having lain for ten or twenty years following 

 an unusually deep plowing down, consequently the first important 

 thing is to prevent the ripening of weed seeds by destroying the growing 

 weeds, if not as soon as they sprout, certainly before they mature. This 

 can be done at various stages by the hoe, cultivator, plow, or by digging 

 out. A good plan to prevent weeds is to keep the land well covered 

 with strong growing crops which themselves take full possession of the 

 soil, as clover, rye and other top-heavy crops. A third good course is 

 always to plow the land after a crop is removed and sow it in something 

 to temporarily occupy the soil, if it only be a crop of broadcasted corn 

 which may reach a foot or two in height. A good farmer will soon put 

 a new face on any farm, be it ever so weedy, and no implement is so 

 eflfective as the hoe, and by it weeds can be destroyed in their earlier 

 stages ; but that eminent agriculturist. Sir Joseph H. Gilbert, says, that 

 upon visiting America he was told that no true-blooded American would 

 bend his back sufficiently to use a hoe. 



943. Q. How is it that I now find so many new weeds upon my Mary- Weeds, 



land farm which were not known in that section during my boyhood ^^^ 

 , . Disseminated 



days? 



A. Because the seeds of wheat, oats, grass and clover are now 



frequently the product of distant localities and with them come the 



weed seeds of those remote sections. Seeds are often brought on the wool 



or hair of live stock. For instance : A herd of Texas cattle might easily 



introduce upon a Maryland farm a lot of weeds never before seen there ; 



and in the bedding of cattle cars from distant western localities are 



brought the seeds of many weeds. The whole line of the Pennsylvania 



Railroad between Philadelphia and New York is now bordered with a 



prairie grass the like of which was not seen twenty years ago. 



944. Q. Can I grow in Florida the new tanning plant Canaigre ? Canaigre. 

 A. Yes. You can do it successfully in any loose and dry land south of 



the latitude of Jacksonville. The plant is a native of Mexico, Arizona 

 and Southern California and belongs to the Dock family. It produces 

 tuber-like roots weighing from a few ounces to several pounds ; the 

 clusters sometimes weighing up to one hundred pounds. It is propa- 

 gated by the sets, about seven hundred pounds being required to plant 

 an acre. The planting is best done between the 1st of September and the 

 1st of November. A crop is estimated to range from forty to fifty tons to 

 the acre. 



