4 BULLETIN 1451, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
develops a liking for the leaves of the bush. Cattle also will browse 
on the ripe berries, and the seeds are deposited uninjured in the 
manure. (PI. 3, A.) Many pastures have been found badly infested 
with barberry. In most of such cases adjoining pastures or wood 
lots contained but few barberry bushes. 
These two agencies, birds and cattle, are the chief natural means 
of distributing escaped barberries in the United States, the birds 
serving to distribute the seed over an extensive area and the cattle 
intensively over more limited areas. Water, wind, and other natural 
agencies also serve to distribute the plant, but to a much more 
limited extent. Man also may distribute the bush unintentionally 
by carrying the seeds in mud sticking to shoes or in the use of the 
fruit for decorations. 
Once the barberry has become established it is found to be very 
difficult to eradicate. This is because of the readiness with which 
e> 
Mature &arberr/e-s 
Fig. 1. — Distribution of barberry seedlings grown from seeds scattered by birds 
sprouts develop from any of the underground portions of the bush. 
Small fragments of either the roots or rhizomes may grow and pro- 
duce bushes. This makes a barberry very easy to propagate, but very 
difficult to kill. 
In order to give a clear picture of the barberry and the difficulties 
involved in its eradication it is necessary to describe the development 
of a bush. A single shoot is sent up from the germinating seed. 
Ordinarily in the second or third year, but sometimes not until after 
four or five years, other shoots arise from near the base of this 
primary shoot either just above or below the surface of the ground 
(pi. 6, A). The primary shoot seldom grows to a great length and 
usually is slender and drooping, but the secondary shoots are large 
and erect. In this way the bush develops for several years. Mean- 
while the root system has been developing. Immediately around the 
base of the crown is a thick mass of fine fibrous roots. Large lateral 
roots also develop (pi. 4, A). These parallel the surface of the 
