CHAPTER XIII 
WEEDS 
What a Weed Is. — A weed is generally defined as a plant 
that persists in growing where it is not wanted. Sometimes 
we regard even a plant like wheat as a weed when growing 
in a flower bed or elsewhere out of its proper place. But 
wheat is a plant of highest value which usually attends to 
its own important business of filling the world’s bread basket, 
and if by chance a few precious seeds get into the flower bed 
and spring up there they will readily yield to the argument 
of the hoe. True weeds are ordinarily useless, and un- 
sightly or troublesome. Such plants are by nature adapted 
to growing in places otherwise unoccupied, and invading the 
fields to engage in competition with our cultivated crops. 
Farmers and gardeners properly look upon them as pests 
that often cause labor and expense; but some plants that 
are generally regarded as weeds may at times be put to good 
use. For example, the sweet clover is commonly found as a 
roadside weed, but of late years its value as a forage plant 
is being recognized in the northwestern states. Most weeds 
are homely plants, but in order to thrive under all sorts of 
hostile conditions they must be hardy and robust. Plants 
that pass muster as efficient weeds have one or all of these 
attributes : 
1. They flourish in poor or rich soil, can stand drought as 
well as wet seasons, winter frosts as well as summer heat; 
the seeds may lie in the wet and frozen ground all winter 
without losing their vitality. 
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