NOTES ON PLANTS. 115 



Gardiner, Augusta, Waterville, Auburn, Lewiston, Winthrop, 

 Oakland, Livermore Falls, Farmington, Skowhegan, Pittsfield, 

 Newport, Dexter, Foxcroft, Belfast, Bangor, and on our White 

 Mountain Division like Fryeburg, Brownfield, Cornish, Steep 

 Falls and Sebago Lake. 



That western grain brought in by the carloard is often very 

 foul with weed seeds will appear from the following: 



One party sent us a pound of seed oats from the West, pur- 

 chased from a local dealer who represented it as cleaned seed 

 and charged several cents per bushel more for it. It was prob- 

 ably unscreened grain from cars. An examination of this seed 

 gave the following results: 1,160 mustard seeds, 576 black 

 bind-weed, ill goosefoot, 13 smartweed and sorrel, 28 flax 

 seed, 20 grass seeds, several foxtail, 4 wild morning glory, 3 

 bugloss and several seeds of six different kinds of compositae, 

 not identified. 



From another party we received samples of foul seed screened 

 from oats bought for seed. Eight ounces of the foul seed con- 

 tained as follows: Black mustard, English charlock, jointed 

 charlock, shepherd's purse, pigweed, bind-weed, smartweed, 

 bugloss, flax seed, morning glory, several kinds of grass seed 

 and compositae, and one seed that looked like the Russian 

 thistle. 



Samples like the above are not uncommon. We have exam- 

 ined western oats that were fully one-third by weight jointed 

 charlock. The past season a weed new in Maine, the buffalo bur, 

 came up where a carload of western grain was unloaded and 

 screened. Every town where cars are unloaded is liable to 

 become a centre of weed distribution. The only remedy for 

 this is for farmers to use ground feed and not import whole 

 grain. 



In the solution of the seed and weed question the following 

 points may be worthy of consideration by the farmers of the 

 State : 



1. As far as possible seed grown in the State should be used. 

 Even if such seed be weedy, no new weeds are likely to be intro- 

 duced. Many farmers grow clean seed on their farms and thus 

 escape the introduction of weeds. 



