DISSEMINATION OF WEEDS 11 
well as instruction in better methods, would be more cordially 
received from such an accredited officer than from aggrieved neigh- 
bors. 
But the most prolific source of weed infestation in all parts of the 
country is in the sale and exchange of commercial seeds and 
foodstuffs. It is well known that the introduction and subsequent 
spread in this country of some of its most aggressive and unmanage- 
able land-plagues, as the Orange Hawkweed, the Russian Thistle, 
and the Penny-cress, or Frenchweed, are due to this agency. In 
many parts of the country the business is carried on unchecked by 
inspection or restriction of any kind, and in communities possessed 
of laws for such regulation these are often inoperative through 
negligence. This is a state of affairs that works great injustice to 
both the merchant and the farmer. Itinerant presses are hauled 
about the country, putting hay and straw into bales convenient 
for transportation. When shipped away for sale, a hay-bale may 
contain a large percentage of Ox-eye Daisy, Yarrow, Ragweed, or 
Wild Carrot, rendering it unpalatable and innutritious to stock and 
a lasting damage to the fields where the refuse is spread; yet it may 
bring nearly as good a price as another bale of clean Timothy or 
Blue Grass. Were the “pressmen”’ obliged by law to tag every 
bale according to its quality, growers would be made more heedful 
of their own shortcomings, and salesmen would be less blamed for a 
matter over which they have little control. 
On both sides of the steel track, long green trails, composed largely 
of pernicious kinds of growth, have been drawn over the country 
by the railways, for which they have been called to account and 
obliged to spend enormous sums yearly in keeping their rights-of- 
way in order. The cost of weed removal along the railways of the 
one state of Ohio is placed by Stair at over a half-million of dollars 
per annum. Yet it is to be remembered that the railways are 
merely carriers, probably preferring to haul good, rather than bad, 
merchandise, and having nothing to do with the composition of the 
cargoes that have leaked and spilled so much vexation to the 
cultivators: along their routes. The farmer who blames the rail- 
way for a new pest in his fields may have shipped some that are 
just as troublesome to other localities. 
Many American farmers are very unwise and shortsighted in the 
