88 FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



mass of branches and fire-wood, decapitation, re- 

 peated periodically, transforms them into pollards, 

 seamed with scars, gaping with bleeding wounds, 

 disfigured with bruises, but at the same time con- 

 tending against all this hard usage by a never-failing 

 growth of adventitious buds which constantly re- 

 place with increasing prodigality the brushwood that 

 has fallen victim to the axe. 



"To finish the subject of adventitious buds — buds 

 that persist in multiplying even when the parent 

 stock languishes, and that withstand destruction un- 

 til utter exhaustion has set in — let us recall for a 

 moment certain weeds such as dog's-tooth grass, 

 cock-spur grass, and other grasses that are so hard 

 to keep out of our garden paths unless we do some- 

 thing more than merely rake the surface of the 

 ground. You may have taken infinite pains, we will 

 say, to clean the paths, and have left them immacu- 

 late, or at least you think so. But you are mistaken. 

 In a few days the grass has all come back in richer 

 tufts than ever. The reason is plain enough now: 

 your raking simply cut back the stems, leaving 

 wounds that immediately covered themselves with 

 adventitious buds, which quickly sent up new stalks. 

 Thus, instead of destroying, you have multiplied. 

 The only way to clear the ground of weeds is to pull 

 them up by the roots ; that done, you may consider 

 the job well done." 



