376 WEEDS 



ferns found in pasture lands bordering the low woodland. The 

 animals may learn to love the ferns and eat so much of the woody 

 tissue that they suffer from impaction of the stomach. In other 

 cases animals are actually poisoned by the weeds, and much loss 

 is often experienced. Loco weed often causes serious loss. 



Animal products are injured by weeds. For example: Dairy 

 cows eating wild onions or wild garlic will have their milk badly 

 flavored and thus greatly reduced in value. The wool of sheep is 

 often filled with burrs or other parts of weeds. The market value 

 of the wool is thus much reduced. When such burrs and refuse 

 collect in the manes and tails of horses, or in the tails of cattle, 

 their appearance is marred, and the real value of the cattle is at 

 least apparently reduced. 



The value of field products is often injured by the presence 

 of weed seeds in the harvested crop. When grain is infested with 

 weed seed the buyer greatly discounts or " docks" the value of 

 it. It receives a much lower grade or classification in the market. 

 Millers are unwilling to buy wheat containing the bulblets of onion 

 and garlic. Corn cockle and a few other forms of weed seeds are 

 very difficult to separate from the grain by fans or screens, because 

 they are nearly of the same size and weight. In case weed seeds 

 can be separated from grain, the cost of the product is much 

 increased by this labor. When weeds are mowed in hay fields, the 

 grade of the hay is reduced and the market value is consequently 

 much lower. In some cases the weeds are slow in curing, and 

 the hay itself is thus reduced in value or may be left exposed to 

 the weather until damaged by storm. The increased bulk of the 

 harvest both of hay and grain increases the cost without increasing 

 the returns. 



Weeds Poisonous to Man. Poison ivy has already been 

 mentioned. Its injury to many persons when they come in con- 

 tact with it is a matter of common knowledge. Wild parsnips if 

 eaten during the second season of their growth, as they may be 

 through mistake, are very poisonous. United States Farmers' 

 Bulletin 86 on thirty poisonous plants should be read in this 

 connection. 



Value of Land Reduced. The extremely noxious weeds will 

 reduce the value of farm land. Prospective buyers are loath to 

 buy farms infested with such persistent weeds as wild onions, 

 Johnson grass, quack grass and Canada thistles. Any farm badly 

 infested with weeds of any kind along road-sides, fence-rows or in 



