Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1872-11-08
THE WEEDS OF VERMONT.

Into the discussions on good husbandry
which engage our Board of Agriculture l
bring this subject of weeds. 1t is Just like
actual farm experience that among so much
good grain as we have here, there should
spring up something weedy. May not the
fact that this has not sooner been the case
afford evidence that our Board has farmed
well2 But weeds may not be ignored NOT
in weedy season like the present one, when
the heavens have daily dropped fatness, and
the sun has not long withheld its most gener-
Gus blessing, and all (you might think) from
special favor of the weeds, 50 wonderfully
have they luxuriated under these influences
- not when through all the weeks of sum-
mer they have engaged full half our activi-
ties, as we have struggled with them early
and late, rising up early to find them chok-
ing our choicest plants, aud retiring late
with but the consciousness that they were
still lurking, seen or unseen, everywhere
around So while others may dwell upon
nobler themes, it seems to fall upon me, if
the whole truth about farming must be told,
to make confession of weeds.
In the rudest state of nature when man
is savage and all plants are wild, there are
no weeds in an agricultural sense. Then, if
not Of equal might, all plants have equal
right. In the struggle which then goes on
amongst them for life and place, they take
precedence according 10 no scale of value,
nor are their capabilities recognized They
seek their own haGitats, and arrange them
selves in the various conditions of climate,
soil, exposure, &C., according to their pecu-
liar adaptations and when the wild fruit or
grain, from which the savage gathers mean
support, finds itself crowded upon by plants
that can contribute nothing to his support, it
must hold its own unaided. But when man
has come to the goodly estate of husband
man, and has brought along with him Sc.
lection of plants greatly improved like him.
self, he seeks out a choice soil, fences it
against intrusion, renders it mellow and pro-
ductive by tillage, and plants each sort of
seed by itself. All useless intruders upon
this cultivation the farmer calls weeds. So
the old definition of weed,-"a plant out
Of place, us with him correct one. Ac-
cording to this definition, not only are those
plants possessing little or no value, which in
trude upon cultivated crops, properly called
weeds, (they are always and everywhere
weeds,) but the scattering wheat or rye that
appears amongst the corn which follows
those crops, the buckwheat selfsown the
fall before, that whitens the oat-feld in une,
the choicest grasses that spring up in the
vegetable or flower garden.-all such plants
out Of the place assigned them, assume the
character Of troublesome weeds. But the
botanist, except in Difference to agriculture
acknowledges no weeds. To him every
plant, whether it possesses any economic val
ue or not is in its peculiar and marvellous
construction an object of interest,
Now, from what host docs the partiality
Of the farmer for his few improved plants
invite attack Ten weeds press upon one
infant plant, thrOnging upon it on all sides
To subduo them or hold them in check re.
quires large share of the labors Of cult.
walton. They infest pasture and meadow
with their bitter and noxious qualities. Oul
sown grain they rob of a considerable part oI
the fertility of the soil in ordinary farming
and amongour hoed crops It's the same, unles:
they are faithfully extirpated at much cost
How diversified in character and habits are
these foes of the farmer The tiny mouse
ear blooms beneath the SHOWS of srring
The pgweed attains the hight of man in
few weeks, and sheds its seeds in the autumn
frosts. Between these extremes what vara
tions Of size, and form and season Their,
are weeds for the meadow and weeds for tht
pasture, weeds for the grain field and corr
field, for the door-yard and the barnyard
and weeds which most affect the garden
There are weeds for dry ground and weed
for wet ground. Weeds for every month o
the summer, aUd weeds for the whole sum
mer ;-Annuals and perennials. How abun
dainty endowed with resources for maintain
ing the contest What powers Of reproduc
ton Tho wild mustard has been known t,
rpen 5000 seeds, and the corn cookie $500
Aud what ability to adapt themselves to dii
ferent conditions of soil or season. Tn
green amaranth, or red root, whenit springs
up after cultivation is over, near the end o
summer, will in the few weeks that remai
before frost, fully perfect its seeds, But il
doing so it understands what it is about, an,
does not undertake growth of five feet, a
it would have done early in the season or il
a fat soil. 1t puts forth few tiny leaves
and its stature may not exceed single inch
lheTo aIo many "OOHp FnHV "u0ohinouu'
themselves to circumstances as readily a
this one does, But this pliability of consti
tuition is not shared in any considerable dc
gree by our cultivated plants. They re
quire for their full development defnit
period of time aud certain fixed amounts G
heat and food. 1t is but recently that tn
important part in the remarkable perpetua
tion Of plants in the soil which is borne b
the insignificant growth maintained b
plants in adverse circumstances, as in so
and grain fields, and often escaping motto,
has been fully observed. Nevertheless il rt
mains true that dormant seeds as much o
any other resource of weeds doiept the iAru
ers endesyoT toward clean tillage Burie