No. 4.] MANAGEMENT OF MOWINGS. 379 



yellow daisy, wild carrot, sorrel, dock, buttercups, the 

 common plantain, dandelions, milkweed, ragged robin and 

 horsetail. The methods whic-h will prove most eftective in 

 eradicating these weeds or keeping them in subjection must 

 be quite different in details for the different weeds ; but in 

 general it may be said that, if the soil is kept sweet by suf- 

 ficient use of lime, and well enriched, the conditions will be 

 made so favorable for the growth of the better grasses and 

 the clovers that the weeds will have relatively little chance. 

 The grasses and the clovers, in the struggle for existence 

 which is always going on in the meadows, will prove victo- 

 rious. There are localities, however, where certain weeds 

 have gained such a foothold that special measures of eradi- 

 cating them are called for. There is one general measure 

 which may be expected to prove helpful in the case of al- 

 most any of them, which must l)e first considered. This is 



reseeding. 



Reseeding Mowings. 



The question is often asked, when mowings become highly 

 infested with different weeds, how these weeds can be best 

 subdued or eradicated. Reseeding in almost all such in- 

 stances, if carried out under the right conditions, is likely to 

 prove helpful. The question will at once arise whether it is 

 better to plow and cultivate for one or more years and then 

 reseed, or to plow or otherwise break up the ground and im- 

 mediately reseed. Experience in reseeding mowings in a 

 field having a rather strong, retentive soil, which had become 

 nmch infested with Avhite daisy, buttercups, ragged rol)in 

 and a few other species, convinced me that the ])est results 

 are likely to be obtained by breaking up the land in niid- 

 sunnner, harrowing it repeatedly and most thoroughly until 

 early in August, — so frequently and so thoroughly as to 

 keep the surface absolutely free from vegetation, — then en- 

 riching liljerally and reseeding, sowing seed in very liberal 

 amounts. The seeds of most weeds, if buried in the ground 

 too deep for immediate germination, retain vitality almost 

 indefinitely, and the numl)er of seeds which has been so 

 buried in many of our soils is very great. Cultivation nnist 

 be very long continued in order to permit the destruction 



