WEEDS. 



In popular language, any homely plant which is not noticeable for the 

 beauty of its flowers, nor entitled to respect by a reputation for medic- 

 inal or other useful qualities, is designated by the epithet weed. In an 

 agricultural sense, the term is used with a more restricted meaning, and 

 is applied to those intrusive and unwelcome individuals that will persist 

 jn growing where they are not wanted, — in short, the best definition that 

 has yet been given of a weed is the old one, " a plant out of place." 

 Most of the weeds troublesome in our agriculture are immigrants, either 

 from the Old World, or the warmer portions of this continent. The num- 

 ber of plants indigenous to our country, that are entitled to rank as per- 

 nicious weeds, is comparatively small. As the aborigines disappeared 

 with the advance of the whites, so do the native plants generally yield 

 their possession as cultivation extends, and the majority of the plants to 

 be met with along the lanes and streets of villages, and upon farms, are 

 naturalized strangers, who appear to be quite at home, and are with 

 difficulty to be persuaded or driven away. 



The labors of the agriculturist are a constant struggle ; on the one 

 hand, by presenting the most favorable conditions possible, he endeavors 

 to make certain plants grow and produce to their utmost capacity ; and 

 on the other hand, he has to prevent the growth of certain other plants 

 that are ready to avail themselves of these favorable conditions. The 

 farmer is interested in two points concerning weeds : how they get into 

 his grounds, and how to get them out. As cultivation is all the more 

 profitably carried on if the farmer knows something of the nature and 

 character of the plants he would raise, so, if he would successfully 

 operate in the other direction, and stop plants from growing, he can do 

 so all the better if he knows what are the peculiar habits of the iu^ 

 dividuals with which he has to contend, — and it is quite as important 



[xiii] 



