CROP ENEMIES AND FRIENDS 



193 



has caught fast in your clothing, and throw it down on the 

 ground, you are carrying out the cocklebur's plan of seed sowing. 

 If you do not wish to reap burs, do not sow them; burn them 

 instead. 



Weed Travelers. Weeds are such great travelers that they are 

 called the ' tramps of the vegetable world.' They do not travel 

 only in slow, old-fashioned ways, helped by wind and wave and 

 animal. They travel with all the conveniences of the age, by 

 rail and boat. Their seeds are often carried from one country to 

 another in hides, in fleeces, in hay, and mixed in other seed, such 

 as grass or grain. 



Native and Foreign Weeds. Few of our native weeds are trouble- 

 some in the crop field. They have been used to contending only 

 witS other native plants, and have not, as it seems, adapted them- 

 selves to the struggle with man and his agricultural tools. They 

 retire to the forest and untilled land. 



Our most troublesome weeds. have been imported from Europe. 

 For centuries they have been struggling for existence there, and they 

 are bold, hardy, and persistent. 



Weedless China. There is one country almost entirely free 

 from weeds. That is China. It is an old country, so thickly 

 peopled and so occupied with crops that weeds are crowded out. 

 This is the only way they are ever destroyed, by careful tillage 

 and by occupying all the land with crops. 



How to keep Weeds in Check. As it will probably be several 

 thousand years before oiir country is as densely populated as China, 

 American farmers must work to keep weeds in check. They can 

 do so by good tillage, rotation of crops, occupying the land with 

 crops, protecting the insect and bird enemies of weeds, and destroy- 

 ing troublesome weeds. 



A farmer who does not fight weeds bo'th out and in his crops is 



