CHAPTER XVI 

 WEEDS 



It has been said that a " weed is a plant growing in the 

 wrong place." There is much truth in this statement for many 

 well-known plants are pests or valuable products, depending 

 upon their location. The morning-glory is a beautiful orna- 

 mental plant in the home grounds but a pest in our cultivated 

 fields ; and mustard is a useful plant which becomes a pest when 

 the farm lands are thoroughly infested with it. 



Many of our valuable cultivated crops were at one time wild 

 plants of the plains and forest which man has found to be use- 

 ful and has learned to cultivate in an advantageous manner. 

 In fact, if we would go far enough back in, the history of man- 

 kind, back to the time when man was uncivilized, we should no 

 doubt find that all plants were at one time wild or unculti- 

 vated. With the progress of the human race man has learned 

 to cultivate and make use of many plants, but never in all his- 

 tory has man put forth so much effort to conquer nature and 

 utilize her products as at present. Every year sees plants that 

 we have in the past looked upon as weeds brought under culti- 

 vation and every year our government's traveling specialists 

 are collecting both cultivated and uncultivated plants from 

 abroad, many of them from the remote comers of the earth, and 

 sending them to America to be tested in order that their value 

 as farm crops can be determined. 



Weed Defined. — A weed is not only a plant growing in the 



wrong place, but it may be a plant which we have not yet learned 



to make use of, or one which we have not learned to cultivate 



profitably. However, for our purpose, a weed is a plant which 



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