78 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ened by a winter of fasting. Every farmer is familiar 

 witii the greasy, smooth and greenish look they have, coiled 

 into a ball at the base of a young stalk, wilting from their 

 recent attacks. 



Weeds are the worst enemies in the cornfield, especially 

 in the older parts of the country, where they have obtained a 

 strong foothold in the soil. All cultivated plants when well 

 cared for are unnaturally j)rotected, and when these fiivoring 

 conditions are removed they are easily vanquished in the 

 struggle for existence by those plants that are the fittest to 

 survive under neglect. The corn-plant is like a person 

 reared under the influences of civilization, who would not 

 stand in the wild woods on an equal footing with the savage,- 

 and could not hope to thrive when the advantages of his cul- 

 tured life were withdrawn. The child of nature is at home 

 in the wild forest, and will get a good living with only his 

 hands and feet to aid him, while the civilized man would be 

 lost iu the race. So with the weeds : they are more than a 

 match for the nursed and pampered grains and vegetables of 

 the farm and garden. It is a part of the great economy of 

 nature that no portion of a fertile soil should be without a 

 covering of vegetation, and if the hand of man is withheld 

 the weeds will soon weave a garment to cover the nakedness 

 that the axe or plough has made. If a farmer will, and he 

 should, show special favors to any cultivated crop, by giving 

 its plants abundant room in a rich soil, he must accept the 

 situation and enter the field as a champion for his crop and 

 fio^ht with the weeds for the right to the soil. He most cer- 

 tainly invites their presence by providing the most favorable 

 conditions for their starting into a vigorous growth, and 

 therefore should be active in holding the pests in check. In 

 a new country it is of great importance to keep out all weed 

 seeds from the soil ; bnt in the older parts of the world, 

 where the farms are well stocked with them, there must be 

 added to this labor the destruction of the weeds already pres- 

 ent. The earlier in life a weed is killed the better, thus giving 

 it less time to steal plant nourishment from the soil, and pre- 

 venting it from forming seed to continue the trouble. There 

 is no royal road to weed-killing — no panacea for this disease 

 of foul land. Weeds get their living in the same manner as 



