GARDEN FOES AND GARDEN FRIENDS 
129 
Although we are willing to concede that weeds have reason 
for being, no gardener will, except by special " permit,” 
grant them the freedom of his garden. Still, getting rid of 
them is a great problem. In special instances it has been 
found that these nurslings can be destroyed in their cradles 
by sterilizing the soil. In greenhouses this is now often 
done by a hot-water process. Acting on this principle, some 
schoolboys not long ago tried baking in their mothers’ ovens 
the topsoil for their vegetable gardens, — and with fair suc- 
cess. But sterilizing presents altogether too many difficulties 
to warrant considering it seriously for general practice. Really 
the only way to disturb these weed nurseries is by hoe or hand 
weeder. E^or a nature-study class, collecting the weeds of a 
region, mounting them so as to show their life histories from 
seedling to fruit, is well worth while. This is in direct line 
with the work of the experiment station. 
Somehow weeding is always referred to as the lowest form 
of drudgery, and so it would seem like putting on airs for us 
to claim that it can be anything else. Has it not been said 
to require a cast-iron back with a hinge in it } And yet in 
this occupation, as in every sort of toil, much depends upon 
the purpose for which it is being done. We cannot doubt 
Stevenson’s sincerity, for instance, when he wrote to his 
friends from that garden in Samoa which he loved so dearly : 
” I went crazy over outdoor work. Nothing is so interesting 
as weeding, clearing, and path-making. ... If you could 
see this place. It will be a home for angels.” ^ And as a bit 
of encouragement for ourselves, just fancy what weeding in 
the tropics must be ! 
Enters now a second trouble. Even the mildest- tempered 
farmer is apt to lose patience when he sets out to rid his farm 
land of the fungi that calmly nourish themselves upon the 
1 R. L. Stevenson, Vailima Letters. 
