Possibility of Destroying Weeds. 37 



be equivalent to saying that grasses robbed 

 of nutriment by overshadowing weeds, and 

 grown in the absence of sunHght, would be 

 more abundant and nutritious than grasses 

 occupying the ground alone. Such argu- 

 ment should be consigned to a deeper shade 

 than the rankest weeds can possibly furnish. 

 Again, weeds growing in crops increase 

 the labor of handling the crops, and to no 

 useful purpose. Here, too, the increase in 

 labor will be in proportion to the extent to 

 which the weeds are present, and with all 

 increase in labor that is not followed by a 

 corresponding return, there must be a 

 decrease in the profits. Weeds increase the 

 labor of harvesting the crops amid which 

 they grow, whether these are cereal or cul- 

 tivated crops. Grain crops are much more 

 difficult to reap where weeds abound, since 

 the latter are more branching in their hab- 

 its of growth than cereal plants, are more 

 woody in fibre, and are of greater height 

 proportionately — the latter characteristic 

 resulting from a tendency to a more pro- 

 longed state of greenness in some portions 

 of the plants. Cultivated crops are much 

 more difficult to harvest w^here weeds 

 abound, since weeds frequently hinder free- 



