292 OHIO EXPERIMENT STATION: BULLETIN 175. 



Weeds are plants out of place. But we may add that man's 

 ideas of place are here considered. Civilized man has disturbed or 

 overturned conditions existing" at his advent in America, introduced 

 and cultivated a variety of plants and brought in, with or without 

 intent, a goodly number that now torment him. Cultural conditions 

 have been maintained, and weeds as long accustomed to these con- 

 ditions as the cultivated plants themselves, in some cases even 

 longer, nourish under them. They make the host of introduced 

 weeds. Besides, certain native plants are occasionally better 

 adapted to the new conditions than to the old; they accordingly 

 thrive. Both the naturalized and native plants crowd the cultivated 

 ones. We thus perceive that some weeds are inevitable when the 

 wilderness has once been broken. The number of weeds, and the 

 damages resulting from them, will be altogether a matter of the 

 wise efforts, both individual and collective, that are expended for 

 their destruction. Weeds are destroyed or subdued that more 

 valuable food plants may be grown. 



Upon a railway track or right-of-way any plant growth is un- 

 sightly or a possible menace. From this point of view leaking 

 grain as corn, oats, wheat, when "starting to grow upon the track" 

 supplies a new type of weeds.* 



HOW WEEDS INJURE THE HUSBANDMAN. 



Weeds injure the husbandman in a variety of ways. They in- 

 jure by offending his aesthetic nature, his taste; also by threatening, 

 as his judgment assures him, conditions of taste or profit for the 

 future. The aesthetic side is a large factor in depreciating the 

 value of weedy and carelessly kept homesteads. This sort of injury 

 is shared by the whole community when thoroughfares, be they 

 public canals, railroads or common roadways, are permitted to re- 

 main uncared for. 



Weeds injure by reducing the crop yield. It is the crop loss 

 that receives more common estimate when damages from weeds are 

 counted. 1. Weeds rob the soil of moisture. 2. Weeds crowd 

 other plants, thus depriving them of light and of space in both soil 

 and air. 3. Weeds take up the flood elements which are needed for 

 other plants. 4. Weeds may harbor injurious fungi or insects. 5. 

 They injure by killing stock (sheepkill) or by rendering milk 

 offensive (wild onion). 6. Weed seeds render certain products of 

 the farm, such as clover seed, wheat and the like, unmarketable. 

 Other injuries might be enumerated and will suggest themselves. 



*S e Stair, L. D. Railroad Weeds Proc. Ohio Acad. Science 8:44-59:1900. 



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