WEEDS AND GRASSES. 259 
Afterward, if the soil is right, it will not be seen. 
Chickweed is not a serious disturbance to alfalfa and 
when present may be harrowed out with a spike- 
toothed harrow in early spring. Lamb’s quarter 
succumbs to mowing, as does pigweed, both being 
annuals. The same is true of ragweed, which totally 
disappears from a field with soil made right and 
sown to alfalfa. Sheep sorrel, that vile pest of old 
eastern farms, disappears the instant alfalfa is sown 
among it on land filled with carbonate of lime and 
made rich. So disappears that pest ox-eye daisy; 
nothing is surer to take it out than alfalfa, if the soil 
is made right. Wild carrot is out when alfalfa 
comes, and the Canada thistle retreats, to be seen no 
more. 
The terror of many eastern farms is found in 
sheep sorrel, wild carrot, daisy and Canada thistles. 
If alfalfa would do no more than to exterminate 
them it would be richly worth while. Very great ef- 
fort is yearly expended in fighting these weeds. Ifa 
little more effort was put with that already spent, 
and wasted, in unavailing conflict, in the way of put- 
ting the soil right, making it dry, filling it with car- 
bonate of lime, filling it with humus, giving it phos- 
phorus and then alfalfa seed, the battle would be 
won, the weeds exterminated and at no cost at all, as 
the alfalfa alone would far more than repay the 
farmer for all his effort and expense. 
There are other weeds that are exceedingly 
troublesome that alfalfa causes to disappear. The 
bindweed or morning-glory, sometimes called wild 
