4 A MANUAL OF WEEDS 



weed-seeds broadcast, with a fertilizer to help them to grow, is still 

 more expensive. One advantage of feeding hay from clean mead- 

 ows and bedding the farm animals on straw from clean grain fields, 

 is that stable manure may then be used as fast as it is produced, 

 without loss of much of its fertilizing power from leaching and 

 fermentation or expense from the necessary twice handling. 



6. Sow clean seed ; as near to perfectly clean as it is possible to 

 make it. A thousand Clover seeds are but a small handful and will 

 not suffice to plant a square rod of ground. If, then, the seeds of 

 Dodder are but one to a thousand in a field of Clover, the crop is 

 in danger of being ruined, and the land of being infested for a num- 

 ber of years with one of the worst of noxious weeds. Could the 

 American farmer once be strongly convinced of the importance of 

 this matter of sowing only the purest seed obtainable, the worst 

 stronghold of the weed-army against which he fights would be con- 

 quered. All purchased seeds should be accepted only on a guaranty, 

 and even then should be examined with care. It was undoubtedly 

 by this agency that most of the foreign weeds which harass the land 

 were brought to our shores and it is by this means that most of our 

 home-grown pests are carried about and introduced in sections not 

 before troubled by them. Only the best seed is good enough to 

 plant, and the cheapest brand in the market is by far the most 

 costly. The expense of preparing the land for a crop is equal, but 

 the cost of its cultivation and care is much increased and the 

 returns are greatly lessened where any considerable proportion of 

 the seed sown produces worthless or aggressively pernicious plants. 



7. Be on the w^atch for weeds new to the locality, and never trust 

 to the harmlessness of such strangers. Had a few Dakota farmers 

 been alive to the danger when the first Russian Thistles appeared in 

 their flax-fields, the spread of that most pernicious plant might 

 have been prevented, to the great advantage of large areas of the 

 country. One of the services required by the State from each 

 staff of Experiment Station workers is the identification of weed- 

 seeds in samples of seeds submitted and the proportion of such 

 impurities. Unknown plants may also be sent to the Stations for 

 name and statement of qualities, and every farmer has the right 

 of appeal to the Agricultural Department of his State for assistance 

 in such matters. 



