WEEDS OF THE FIELD 259 
seeds that travel by air. There are others, however, that 
have staying qualities, and they are the troublesome 
weeds. 
Obviously, there is no hard and fast line to be drawn 
between weeds and other plants. Buckwheat, when sown 
as a field crop one season, may spring up as a weed in the 
midst of the corn crop next season. Some very bad weeds, 
like mustard and wormseed, are raised as crops for their seed. 
Some, like dandelion, are eaten as 
salads. Many, indeed, of the weeds 
of the field are eaten by live stock, 
and, like pig-weed and purslane, at 
once disappear when fields are turned 
into pastures. Some weeds, like 
mallow, mullein, and yarrow, have 
beautiful foliage, and others, like 
morning-glory, daisy and thistle, 
have splendid flowers. 
Weeds, like other plants, have their 
preferences as to situations. Pitch- 
forks and the larger docks like abund- 
ant moisture, and cluster in low 
ground. Abutilon and jimson-weed 
do well only in rich soil, while rag- 
si Ag ages weeds! “ weed and foxtail flourish on poor soil. 
Pigweed and lamb’s-quarters and 
crab-grass love the garden and the edge of the manure heap. 
In dooryards and along paths where much trampling keeps 
down the tall weeds, low-growing things, like dandelion and 
plantain, or prostrate tough-stemmed things, like mallow 
(fig. 93) and doorweed, thrive. Obviously, prostrate 
plants, that cast so thin a shadow as do doorweed and spurge 
(fig. 100), are not a match for taller weeds and can flourish 
only on bare ground. 
b 
