322 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



are almost unknown, while pusley and quack grass have in some 

 places assumed quite an air of respectability as forage plants. 



Naturally weeds are worst in soils which are moist in summer, 

 such as the rich lowlands, and on such lands the California vege- 

 table grower has to fight for his crop. Some winter-grown plants, 

 like onions, are secured at the cost of much weeding in some situa- 

 tions. Still it is true, as remarked above, that weeds do not, taking 

 the state as a whole, call for such an amount of expensive effort as 

 they occasion in humid climates, and if the garden is arranged, as 

 it should be, for the free use of horse-power, the burden of hand 

 pulling and hoeing is reduced to a minimum, and the exertion of a 

 prolonged hand-to-hand contest with weeds is seldom heard of in 

 California. 



For these reasons, perhaps, California has no special contribu- 

 tions to make to general knowledge of weed killing. So far, however, 

 as her experience goes it is most strenuously in favor of destroying 

 weeds as robbers of moisture which must be saved for useful plants. 

 The California garden must be clean and the surface must be fre- 

 quently stirred, whether weeds appear or not. It may be fortunate, 

 then, that we are not altogether free from weeds, for their invitation 

 to slaughter accomplishes far more for the garden than their own 

 destruction. 



