AN interlude: some garden weeds 



plot seed has probably been sown in drills or rows. 

 (One can usually get as much or more on the same 

 area and cultivate it more easily than when sown 

 broadcast.) Seedlings and weeds will come up 

 together, but only a very short time will be 

 needed before the characteristic appearance of 

 each will disclose its variety. Rarely is seed so 

 adulterated that the weed equals or exceeds the 

 plant desired. 



It is only the weed in the rows that need cause 

 trouble, for proper cultivation between them 

 should eradicate the foreign population when 

 young. In its youth the weed is not sturdy, 

 whether youth be considered in relation to 

 actual age or to its appearance in a new locality. 

 Beware of its second season. If it is an annual, 

 though it die, it has first scattered its myriad 

 children. If it is a perennial, it has not only 

 done this but has firmly established itself, pre- 

 pared to increase by its roots, by underground 

 runners, by division of root, by rooting joints, by 

 suckers or by more than one of these, or by all, 

 so tenacious of life are weeds. 



"The most human plants after all are the weeds. 

 How they cling to man and follow him around the 

 world! How they crowd round his barns and 

 dwellings and throng his garden and jostle and 

 override each other to be near him"* — and what 

 good turns they sometimes serve him! 



If we look at weeds for their food value we find 



♦ Burroughs, John: A Year in the Fields, p. 135. 

 205 



I 



