4 A MANUAL OF WEEDS 
weed-seeds broadcast, with a fertilizer to help them to grow, is still 
more expensive. One advantage of feeding hay from clean mead- 
ows and bedding the farm animals on straw from clean grain fields, 
is that stable manure may then be used as fast as it is produced, 
without loss of much of its fertilizing power from leaching and 
fermentation or expense from the necessary twice handling. 
6. Sow clean seed; as near to perfectly clean as it is possible to 
makeit. A thousand Clover seeds are but a small handful and will 
not suffice to plant a square rod of ground. If, then, the seeds of 
Dodder are but one to a thousand in a field of Clover, the crop is 
in danger of being ruined, and the land of being infested for a num- 
ber of years with one of the worst of noxious weeds. Could the 
American farmer once be strongly convinced of the importance of 
this matter of sowing only the purest seed obtainable, the worst 
stronghold of the weed-army against which he fights would be con- 
quered. All purchased seeds should be accepted only on a guaranty, 
and even then should be examined with care. It was undoubtedly 
by this agency that most of the foreign weeds which harass the land 
were brought to our shores and it is by this means that most of our 
home-grown pests are carried about and introduced in sections not 
before troubled by them. Only the best seed is good enough to 
plant, and the cheapest brand in the market is by far the most 
costly. The expense of preparing the land for a crop is equal, but 
the cost of its cultivation and care is much increased and the 
returns are greatly lessened where any considerable proportion of 
the seed sown produces worthless or aggressively pernicious plants. 
7. Be on the watch for weeds new to the locality, and never trust 
to the harmlessness of such strangers. Had a few Dakota farmers 
been alive to the danger when the first Russian Thistles appeared in 
their flax-fields, the spread of that most pernicious plant might 
have been prevented, to the great advantage of large areas of the 
country. One of the services required by the State from each 
staff of Experiment Station workers is the identification of weed- 
seeds in samples of seeds submitted and the proportion of such 
impurities. Unknown plants may also be sent to the Stations for 
name and statement of qualities, and every farmer has the right 
of appeal to the Agricultural Department of his State for assistance 
‘in such matters. 
