maintainaQce of a continued high temperature and moisture, which 

 will cause the seeds to either germinate and then decay, or to decay 

 before germinating. The amount of moisture can be easily regulated 

 and by properly working over any pile of compost containing a large 

 amount of organic matter, the required amount of heat may be ob- 

 tained. From the above experiments it would seem doubtful if the 

 practice of keeping swine upon manure piles to cause slow decompo- 

 sition is the best for manure containing weed seeds. It is also doubt- 

 ful if the seeds of weeds often put into the pens where pigs are kept 

 will be destroyed by the action of the little heat there generated. It 

 would probably be safer in both of the above cases to compost the 

 manure in large piles before using it upon the land. 



3. At what stage of blooming are the seeds of the white daisy 

 {leucanthemum vidgare) matured enough to germinate ? 



Answer. This weed has become so abundant in the grass land of 

 some sections of the state that it must be cut with the grass, and it 

 becomes important to know if it can be cut with the grass before the 

 the seeds mature. After a series of careful examinations it has been 

 decided that when the flower first reaches its full expansion few or no 

 seeds are mature enough to germinate, but that it requires only a few 

 days for these seeds to mature to full ripeness. In view of these 

 facts it would not seem safe for the farmer to depend wholly upon 

 the early stage of cutting, but to afterwards compost all manures 

 made from fodder containing weed seeds of any kind. 



June Grass and White Top. — To this grass, on account of the 

 many inflorescences that fail to mature and turn white, is often given 

 the name of ivhite top., and the question is often asked, " what is the 

 cause of this condition? " Upon careful investigation it has been 

 found that this condition is most prevalent upon land exhausted by 

 long cropping or where the roots have been much injured by the 

 larveae of the June Bug or May Beetle. The turning of the top to a 

 white color is due to the destruction of the culm or stalk just above 

 the last leaf, by a fungus growth. Upon rich land and where there 

 are few insect larveae working at the roots, there is little or none of 

 this white top, and we are led to reason that the fungus does not at- 

 tack the stem of the grass until the cells have become weakened in 

 some way. 



S. T. MAYNARD, 

 Professor of Botany and Horticulture., 



Mass. Agricultural College. 



