A MANUAL OF WEEDS 
WHAT IS A WEED? 
A WEED is a plant that is growing where it is desired that somes 
thing else shall grow. It follows that a plant may be a weed in 
some places and not in others. Cockle in the wheat fields is most 
undesirable; New England Asters and Black-eyed Susans are 
detrimental when growing in the meadow; but all are graceful and 
beautiful plants, and, growing in a protected flower garden, would 
be a feast to color-loving eyes. It is well that most pernicious 
plants have little beauty to make them desired in the posy beds of 
the farm home, for, though it is necessary to label some bad weeds 
as “escapes from cultivation,” they are not numerous nor among 
the most evil of their kind. 
Each weed has its own way of winffing in its struggle with the 
farmer’s crops and its habits must b€ learned in order to know how 
to get the better of it. This can be done only by a study of the life 
history of the species. According to their nature, different means 
of extermination must be practiced, always remembering that all 
living things are tender and die most easily when they are young; 
and also that in every case the chief end is to prevent reproduction 
of kind. 
Weeds, like all other plants, may be classified according to the 
length of time they live: as annual, surviving the winter only in the 
seed ; as biennial, storing in fleshy root or broad green leafy rosette 
the food drawn from the soil and air during the first season, to per- 
fect the fruitage in the second year; and as perennial, surviving 
through many seasons and springing up to spread abroad their kind 
and pester the land year after year, unless destroyed “root and 
branch.” Purslane and the common Ragweed are good examples 
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