VARIOUS FARM PRODUCTS 537 



clearing of the soil can be accomplished in conjunction with the 

 cultivation of corn or root crops. Where winter wheat and rye may 

 be grown profitably the land should be plowed as soon as possible 

 after the spring crop is harvested, and harrowed about once a week 

 until time for sowing the wheat or rye. Oats should be left out of 

 the rotation so far as may be until the wild oats are subdued, as the 

 latter growing among the cultivated oats are difficult to detect for 

 removal, and after harvesting and thrashing it is practically impos- 

 sible to separate completely the two kinds of grain. 



False Flax. This plant is a member of the mustard family. 

 It resembles flax somewhat, but has much smaller flowers and seeds, 

 and its seed capsules are pear-shaped instead of spherical. It is an 

 annual, like shepherd's purse, pepper-grass, and most of the other 

 troublesome weeds of the mustard family. The seeds germinating 

 in the fall produce a rosette of leaves in the same manner as the 

 dandelion. In the spring a seed stalk is developed from the midst, 

 and after the seeds are matured the plant dies. The seeds germin- 

 ating in the spring produce plants that usually blossom during the 

 same season, but seldom mature seeds, being killed too early by the 

 frost. The seed occurs as an impurity in flaxseed and clover seed, 

 and in some of the grass seeds, especially timothy. Where the false 

 flax has become abundant it may be necessary to omit winter wheat 

 and rye from the rotation for a few years and raise crops that will 

 permit cultivation in autumn. Spring grain crops may be grown, 

 or hoed crops may occupy the ground during the summer. Hoed 

 crops may be employed to best advantage, as the cultivation given 

 to these crops will induce the false-flax seed to germinate and thus 

 clear the land sooner. In pastures and meadows the weeds may be 

 pulled if they have not become too abundant; but if this work has 

 been long neglected it will probably be necessary to plow and culti- 

 vate the land. (F .B. No. 28.) 



A FEW MORE OF THE WORST WEEDS. 



Canada Thistle, Field Thistle (Carduus arvensis). This field 

 pest is well enough known by name, yet a good many persons are 

 mistaking it for other plants and calling other plants the thistle. 

 The essential differences from other thistles are the underground 

 stems (with numerous shoots coming to the surface) the lobed and 

 very spiny leaves and the smaller heads. The absence of the thick 

 tap-root alone usually makes us certain that we have to do with the 

 so-called Canada thistle. It is incorrectly so-named, because it is 

 introduced from Europe and not from Canada. The specific name 

 "arvensis" means growing in fields, hence field thistle is a much 

 more ^correct name. Perhaps there is no weed name that carries 

 with its utterance more of dread to the land-owner than that of 

 Canada thistle, yet its most noxious feature, that of creeping, root- 

 ing, underground stems, is possessed by a dozen or more others, in- 

 cluding horse-nettle, toad-flax, milkweed, ground-ivy, cypress-spurge, 

 nut-grass, periwinkle, bracted bindweed, field bindweed, quack- 

 grass, dogbane and elders. While this is a vile weed it has been 

 over advertised in comparison with some others equally as bad. It 



