208 ROSACEAE (ROSE FAMILY) 
light, hairy-coated, blown far and wide over crusted winter snow. 
(Fig. 150.) 
Means of control 
One way is to cut or burn off the tops before the leaves start in 
the spring, and then, with a strong team and a heavy plow, turn out 
the roots, drag them from the soil with a harrow, pile, dry for a 
few days, and burn. Some of the largest roots will prove too much 
for the plow and the harrow; such roots must be pulled by a horse 
with a chain, aided by a man with a crowbar. Or young and com- 
paratively shallow roots may be knocked out of the ground with a 
pickax while the soil is still frozen. Farmers who have thus re- 
claimed Cinquefoil fields say that the land is left in excellent condi- 
tion for crops, being apparently improved rather than exhausted 
by its weedy occupant. Some of these shrubby lots may not be 
worth so much expense and labor and should be given back to forest 
growth, which soon drives out the weed and would, in the end, 
prove a very profitable investment. 
The keeping of Angora goats has been successfully tried, those 
animals browsing back the twigs and entirely preventing seed 
development; but there is probably more than enough Black 
Brush, as the shrub is called in Colorado, to supply all the goats in 
the country. On the whole, the best means of keeping out this very 
aggressive weed is not to let it get in; that is, whenever the white, 
woolly, young shoots appear, hand-pull them promptly, letting 
none mature to reproduce themselves by thousands and possess the 
land. 
SILVERWEED 
Potentilla Anserina, L. 
Other English names: Goose Grass, Goose Tansy. 
Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds and by many-jointed. 
runners which take root at the nodes. 
Time of bloom: May to September. 
Seed-time: July to November. 
Range: Throughout North America; also in Europe and Asia. 
Habitat: Wet grasslands, banks of streams, lake and sea shores. 
All that this plant seems to require is that the ground shall be 
damp, and, whether the land be the tropic shores of the Gulf of 
Mexico or an Alaskan or Greenland marsh, it is satisfied. 
