VARIOUS FARM PRODUCTS 535 



15 to 30 inches. The leaves are dark-green, lance-ovate, smooth, 

 about l l /2 inches long. At the base of the leaf stalk in most cases 

 are two slender sharp spines, one-fourth to one-half inch long. The 

 small, green flowers are crowded in slender spikes at the ends of the 

 branches and in dense clusters in the axils of the leaves. The 

 seeds, borne singly in the flowers, but aggregating several thousand 

 on an average plant, are black and shining, round or slightly flat- 

 tened, and about one twenty-fourth of an inche in diameter. Like 

 other annuals it may be subdued by preventing the production of 

 seed. It would readily succumb to thorough cultivation, as it grows 

 rather slowly at first and does not produce seed until midsummer 

 or later. Mowing or grubbing up the plant before the flower spikes 

 develop is probably the best method of eradication in permanent 

 pastures. Potato land and corn stubble may be plowed or thor- 

 oughly disked after the crop is harvested and a winter crop sown 

 which will keep down the weeds. 



Spiny Cocklebur. This plant is often called dagger cockle- 

 bur. The stem branches from the base and grows to the height of 

 1 to 3 feet, bearing many narrowly ovate leaves about 1M> inches 

 long, sometimes slightly toothed near the base, rather thick in tex- 

 ture, the upper surface dark-green with a whitish midrib, and the 

 lower white with woolly pubescence. At the base of the leaf stem 

 on one side is a three-pronged spine about an inch long. On the 

 other side is an inconspicuous flower, followed by an oblong, spiny 

 bur like those of the common native cockleburs, but smaller, about 

 one-half inch long. Each bur contains two seeds. As they remain 

 inclosed in the hard, spiny bur, they are seldom found in commer- 

 cial seeds. Although this weed is an annual it is most troublesome in 

 pastures and meadows, spreading even in strong sod. The growth 

 of the spiny cocklebur at first is slow and, as it needs light and 

 room to develop into a robust plant, it may be choked down by any 

 quick-growing crop that will crowd and shade it. In permanent 

 pastures and waste places, where it flourishes best, it could doubtless 

 be eradicated in time by mowing the plants about twice each year, 

 in August and September, or by cutting them up with a hoe or 

 spud in May and June. As the seeds often lie dormant in the 

 thick-walled bur several years before germinating, it might require 

 a like period to exterminate a patch by this method ; but the plants 

 would continually be growing less in number, and the labor corres- 

 pondingly lighter. 



Chondrilla. This plant has a rosette of root leaves similar to 

 those of the dandelion, but the rigid, branching stems are bare, 

 except for the inconspicuous linear bracts and the small yellow 

 flowers. The lower part of the main stem is clothed with small 

 prickles. The plant begins to bloom in June or July and continues 

 to flower and produce seeds until killed by frost. The pappus 

 enables the achenes (containing seed) to be carried a considerable 

 distance by the wind. As the plant is usually most abundant in neg- 

 lected pasture land where the soil is somewhat impoverished, it seems 

 probable that cultivation and a supply of fertilizer would soon subdue 



