Weeds. 



201 



and to give written notice to the owner or occupant, and if he neg- 

 lect for tea days to do the work the overseer shall employ some 

 one to do it and report the amount expended to the commissioner of 

 highways, who in turn certifies the amount to the supervisor of the 

 town, and hy him it is put in the tax levy and charged eventually to 

 the laud whoso owner or occupant should have destroyed the weeds. 

 In like manner and at the same times, railroad and turnpike cor- 

 porations are required to destroy the weeds along their roads, and the 

 State's agents in charge of the canals must cause to be cut or destroyed 

 the Canada thistles and other noxious weeds growing on State lands 

 along the canals. These laws are good so far as they go and, if faith- 

 fully observed, they would go far toward improving the appearance of 

 our highways and diminishing the sources of weed infection of our 

 fields. But where people profess to observe it, they seem to think that 

 all that is necessary is to mow or cut down the weeds. There are many 

 perennial weeds that are not destroyed in this way, and some that are 

 not even kept from perfecting seed by the mowings at the times 

 assigned, so that if the law is not fully kept in spirit, as well as in 

 letter, it will accomplish but part of the work it was apparently de- 

 signed to do. 



Let us now consider briefly some of the means and methods em- 

 ployed in destroying weeds. These may include the application of 

 destructive substances, the cherishing of parasitic fungi injurious to 

 weeds, the employment of domestic animals, the cultivation of quick- 

 growing, vigorous, useful plants, pulling by hand, cutting with scythe 

 or mower, suppressing or destroying with hoe, rake, harrow or culti- 

 vator, and burying beneath the soil with the plow. Some judgment 

 should be exercised in order to select that method in each case which 

 i8 best. Sometimes one, sometimes another, will be better, according 

 to the kind of weed, place of growth, size, abundance, tenacity of 

 life, etc. 



Weeds growing along the margin of a sidewalk may be killed by a 

 liberal application of salt, but it would not be desirable to destroy 

 weeds in gardens among cultivated plants in this way, for the good 

 and bad would perish alike. It may be necessary to pull by hand a 

 few small weeds along the rows of carrots, beets or onions, but it 

 Would hardly be wise to attempt to clear a meadow of an abundant 

 crop of daisies in this way. It is, at best, a slow and tedious method, 

 and should be employed only in cases where it is necessary, or where, 

 from the limited number of weeds, it can be most quickly and satis- 

 factorily done. A few troublesome weeds are attacked by parasitic 



