FINANCIAL LOSS DUE TO WEEDS 7 
has been estimated by the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture that the average yearly loss due to weeds in the crop and 
meadow lands of the country is about a dollar an acre. 
The presence of weeds not only decreases the yield, but also 
increases the expense of harvesting a crop. A field betangled with 
Bindweed or overgrown with the strong woody stems of Kinghead 
and Thistle enforces extra labor of draft-horses and extra wear of 
farm machinery, even sometimes compelling the task to be done by 
hand work — the most expensive form of labor in every occupation. 
Also, the labor and consequent cost of threshing and cleaning the 
seed from a weedy and inferior crop is much greater than for a 
heavier crop that is clean and thrifty. 
The market value of the crop is reduced. A report from the 
Grain Inspection Department of the state of Minnesota shows the 
average dockage on wheat for two years to be nineteen ounces 
to the bushel. Minnesota produces yearly more than two hundred 
million bushels of small grain. A dockage of but one pound to the 
bushel means a loss of over two hundred million pounds, and if the 
money value be calculated at no more than a cent a pound it is two 
million dollars yearly; and this loss is in addition to decrease of 
yield and increased cost of harvest. 
Some weeds serve as host plants for injurious fungi; and rust, 
smut, and mildew may be transferred from them to the useful 
crops. For example, the wild Barberry harbors the wheat-rust in 
one of its stages, and the fungus that causes the “club-root disease” 
of cabbage finds a host in several weeds of the Mustard Family. 
Weeds serve too as nurseries and feeding grounds for injurious 
insects. Wild relatives of the Potato, such as Ground Cherry and 
Horse Nettle, have been known to harbor the Potato Stalk-borer 
through the winter when all the ruined stems of the cultivated 
crop had been carefully burned in order to hinder its appearance 
another season. Weedy stubbles are often a breeding ground for 
cut-worms, flea-beetles, and other insect plagues. 
Further, much serious loss is caused by a very bad class of 
weeds, possessed of other and much worse qualities than their mere 
presence where they are not wanted. Some, like the Death Camas 
and the Water Hemlock, or Cowbane, are poisonous, and cattle 
and sheep die from eating their young leaves or juicy tubers; 
