594 



Handbook oj Nature Study 



Chickweed. 



Photo by Cyrus Crosby. 



"The worst weed in corn may be — corn." 



— Professor I. P. Roberts. 



Nature is the great farmer. Continually 

 she sows and reaps, making all the forces of 

 the universe her tools and helpers; the sun's 

 rays, wind, rain and snow, insects and birds, 

 animals small and great, even to the humble 

 burrowing worms of the earth — all work 

 mightily for her, and a harvest of some kind 

 is absolutely sure. But if man interferes and 

 insists that the crops shall be only such as may 

 benefit and enrich himself, she seems to yield a 

 willing obedience, and under his control does 

 immensely better work than when unguided. But Dame Nature is an 

 "eye-servant." Let the master relax his vigilance for ever so short a 

 time, and among the crops of his desire will come stealing in the hardy, 

 aggressive, and to him, useless plants that seem to be her favorites. 



A weed is a plant growing where we wish something else to grow, and 

 a plant may, therefore, be a weed in some locations and not in others. 

 The mullein is grown in greenhouses in England as the American velvet- 

 plant. Our grandmothers considered "butter-and-eggs," a pretty posy, 

 and planted it in their gardens, wherefrom it escaped, and is now a bad 

 weed wherever it grows. A weed may crowd out our cultivated plants, 

 by stealing the moisture and nourishment in the soil which they should 

 have ; or it may shade them out by putting out broad leaves and shutting 

 off their sunlight. When harvested with a crop, weeds may be unpala- 

 table to the stock which feed upon it ; or in some cases, as in the wild 

 parsnip, the plant may be poisonous. 



Each weed has its own way of winning in the struggle with our crops, 

 and it behooves us to find that way as soon as possible in order to circum- 

 vent it. This we can only do by a careful study of the peculiarities of the 

 species. To do this we must know the plant's hfe history ; whether it is 

 an annual, surviving the winter only in its seeds; or a biennial, storing in 

 fleshy root or in broad, green leafy rosette the food drawn from the soil 

 and air during tne first season, to perfect its fruitage in the second year; 

 or a perennial, surviving and springing up to spread its kind and pester the 

 farmer year after year, unless he can destroy it "root and branch." 

 Purslane is an example of the first class, burdock or mullein of the 

 second, and the field sorrel or Canada thistle of the third. According 



