OBJECTIONABLE AND PERNICIOUS WEEDS. 23 
shaking the paper gently, the stone grass seeds immediately 
become separated from the main bulk, and they will run all 
over the paper, telling you at once whether your suspicions are 
confirmed. 
There exists, as everybody interested knows, machines for 
extracting weed seeds from samples of other seeds, but no 
machine that we have seen will clean or exorcise weeds from 
samples entirely. And, again, we would warn the intending 
grower to refuse samples in which ke notices suspicions of 
obnoxious weeds. 
Thirty years ago, perhaps less, gangs of women and children 
were wont to be engaged to weed one’s farm, but nowadays 
this custom appears to be unknown, through new laws and 
school boards, and the farmer should therefore be all the 
more careful what he puts on to his land, as, more often than 
otherwise, he will find a cheap sample a dear bargain. 
DoppER (CUSCUTA TRIFOLII). 
The last of the weeds with which we now propose to deal is 
perhaps one of the worst. Like most evils it is attractive on 
account of the interest one cannot resist feeling in it. 
Dodder, in our opinion, must be classified upon the border 
line which divides the animal from the vegetable world. It is 
a plant which feeds upon other plants, more especially upon 
clovers. In nature it resembles the water anemone, which is 
found in our rivers growing upon long sunken piles, and on 
the foundations of old landing-stages, whose green finger-like 
leaves are impregnated with a gelatinous looking matter by 
which it collects and closes upon its food; should the plant 
be severed from its hold and taken from the water and dried 
it emits a most offensive smell, reminding one of putrid fish. 
We have another weed (a water weed) which grows in our 
dykes, and lives upon fish spawn, fry, and vegetable particles 
