WEEDS OF THE FIELD 



259 



seeds that travel by air. There are others, however, that 

 have staying quaHties, and they are the troublesome 

 weeds. 



Obviously, there is no hard and fast line to be drawn 

 between weeds and other plants. Buckwheat, when sown 

 as a field crop one season, may spring up as a weed in the 

 midst of the com crop next season. Some very bad weeds, 

 like mustard and wormseed, are raised as crops for their seed. 

 Some, like dandelion, are eaten as 

 salads. Many, indeed, of the weeds 

 of the field are eaten by live stock, 

 and, like pig-weed and purslane, at 

 once disappear when fields are turned 

 into pastures. Some weeds, like 

 mallow, mullein, and yarrow, have 

 beautiful foliage, and others, like 

 morning-glory, daisy and thistle, 

 have splendid flowers. 



Weeds, like other plants, have their 

 preferences as to situations. Pitch- 

 forks and the larger docks like abund- 

 ant moisture, and cluster in low 

 ground. Abutilon and jimson-weed 

 do well only in rich soil, while rag- 

 weed and foxtail flourish on poor soil. 

 Pigweed and lamb's-quarters and 

 crab-grass love the garden and the edge of the manure heap. 

 In dooryards and along paths where much trampling keeps 

 down the tall w^eeds, low-growing things, like dandelion and 

 plantain, or prostrate tough-stemmed things, like mallow 

 (fig. 93) and doorweed, thrive. Obviously, prostrate 

 plants, that cast so thin a shadow as do door^veed and spurge 

 (fig. 100), are not a match for taller weeds and can flourish 

 only on bare ground. 



Fig. 98. Beautiful weed: 

 yarrow; h, sheep sorrel 



