CHAPTER VII1&. 

 WEEDS IN CALIFORNIA. 



For fear that a book on gardening without a chapter 

 on weeds might prove too great a shock to horticultural 

 propriety, this concession is made to conventionality. The 

 fact is that the California gardener gives himself less con- 

 cern about weeds than the distant reader can perhaps 

 realize. There are several reasons for this: 



First: It is possible to get quite clean ground for 

 winter gardening by weed-killing cultivation before plant- 

 ing. This is one advantage of our long planting season. 



Second: Winter gardening is free from many weeds 

 which only grow in high temperatures. 



Third: Owing to the long spring season, it is possible 

 to clean with plow and cultivators the land which is to 

 be planted after frosts are over. 



Fourth : Summer growth of weeds is largely prevented 

 by the dry surface layer of the soil, and those who do 

 start are destroyed by the persistent summer cultivation 

 which is essential to the preservation of moisture for the 

 crop. . 



Fifth : Many of the worst weeds of humid climates can 

 not survive our dry summer in uncultivated soil and are 

 thus prevented from becoming serious pests here because 

 of their own natural limitations. 



And yet we do have weeds, magnificent weeds, weeds 

 which reflect the growth-giving resources of our soil and 

 climate quite as strikingly as do our useful plants. Mus- 

 tard, turnip, and radish extend laterals for the birds of 

 the air to rest upon. Smartweed grows in some places 

 too high for a man to look over ; in other places morning- 

 glary, licorice, Bermuda and Johnson grasses have a grip 



