Description of Ragweed and Kinghead. 145 



of seeds before the season closes ; and in 

 cultivated crops, as corn or roots, they will 

 also produce seed abundantly if due atten- 

 tion is not given to cultivation late in the 

 season. 



Ragweed and kinghead are distributed in 

 the seeds of all the late-maturing cereals, 

 and in the seed of mammoth and alsike 

 clover, and of timothy. Ragweed is most 

 commonly distributed in the seed of com- 

 mon red clover, for the reason that by 

 the time the clover crop is harvested for 

 thrashing a large proportion of the seeds 

 of the ragweed growing in it have also 

 ripened. It is in the seed of common red 

 clover that ragweed is usually carried to 

 new centers. The seeds of these weeds 

 are also distributed by the excrement of 

 animals, by clover hullers and by birds. 

 In localities w'here these w^eeds once get a 

 foothold, no agent is so potent in effecting 

 their distribution as water. In low-lying, 

 level lands, their distribution soon becomes 

 as wide as the range of the w^ater which 

 overflow's them. The water in its subsi- 

 dence leaves the seeds scattered every- 

 where over the soil. It is impossible, 

 therefore, to keep entirely free from these 



