Weeds. 



257 



tiramonium) once grew and was allowed to perfect and drop its seeds. 

 As was to be expected, an abundant crop of young stramonium plants 

 appeared in that part of the garden the next summer. These were all 

 carefully destroyed that they might not mature seed and perpetuate 

 the evil. But the next summer another lot of young stramoniums 

 appeared, though in diminished numbers. These were speedily de- 

 stroyed as before. For ten successive seasons these plants came up in 

 this part of the garden in constantly diminishing numbers, though 

 none were permitted to perfect seed, and though no plants of the same 

 kind were growing in other parts of the garden or in adjoining 

 grounds. They were evidently all the result of the single seeding from 

 the single plant first noticed. Each successive plowing brought a few 

 seeds within germinating distance of the surface, and left others too 

 deeply buried to germinate. 



A weed that is at home on all kinds of soil, is more potent for mis- 

 chief than one that is limited to certain soils. Couch grass or quack 

 grass, as it is often called, grows readily in all soils, wet or dry, cold 

 or warm, rich or poor, clay or sand. No locality is exempt from its 

 annoying and unwelcome presence, and farmers everywhere are liable 

 to suffer from its invasion. Bur grass, on the other hand, thrives only 

 in sandy soil, and is troublesome to such only as own farms in sandy 

 regions. The orange hawk weed has not made itself odious, except in 

 hilly districts where the soil is of a gravelly character and rather wet 

 and cold. Some weeds, like daisies, butter-cups and fleabane, are most 

 harmful in meadows and pastures. They are easily kept in subjection 

 in gardens and cultivated fields. Others, like the pig weeds, foxtail 

 and pigeon grass, give little or no trouble in meadows, but are a great 

 nuisance in gardens, corn and potato fields. They, like many other 

 plants, prefer to grow in soil made mellow by the plow, and in such 

 soil they quickly overrun most cultivated plants if not held in subjec- 

 tion by frequent cultivation. 



But among the characteristics of troublesome weeds, probably a 

 well-developed system of roots or underground stems gives more 

 potency for evil than any other, especially if the weed is a perennial 

 °ne. It is this that makes it so difficult to eradicate such weeds as 

 Canada thistle and quack grass, and that gives them preeminence over 

 others as foes of the farmer and gardener. As an immediate conse- 

 quence of these large, long and well-developed roots, the plants that 

 possess them are able to grow quickly, to spread rapidly and generally 

 to endure severe drought successfully. In these ways they have a 

 decided advantage over other plants, whether wild or domesticated, 

 17 



