The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1885-04-01

To destroy a growth of Canada
thistles some say the land must be
ploughed five ar six times during
the season, but l have seen a dense
growth of these, as high as mans
head, destroyed. so there is not one
TO be seen on the land to-day, by
simply having been cut down once;
this was at the time when they were
lust coming into blossom
never have considered it q diffi-
cult job to destroy most weeds, and
have always done it by moving
them down. 1t can be done by
commencing at them in the spring
and moving them down every time
they get above the ground all sum-
mer: but this is not the better way;
one moving at just the right time
viii be of as much service as all
this. Generally if plant Is moved
or cut off in the spring, it will send
up new sprouts with great vigor,
but if it be allowed to grow until 1t
has received its full growth and stat
ure and commences to blossom, be-
fore the top is severed from the root
it. has its vitality reduced to the
minimum point.
Very few weeds can endure long
to be moved every year at about
the time when moving has its most
destructive effect. There are many
places along fences and roadsides
and similar situations where it be-
comes difficult to plow to dest troy
weeds, but where they can easily be
mown every year. In the open
meadow, a field which contains Can
ada thistles should be nown rather
early so as not to allow the thist les
to ripen. [ have seen meadows
which were a dense growth of COM
mon wild fax, LiHum rtrginlanuni,
entirely freed from that one weed by
one moving. Some of the common
berry bushes, which are very hardy,
and are always springing up along
fences and in spare places, are very
difficult to destroy, but are discour-
aged and injured each time they are
cut. that cutting being done just as
they are about to blossom. This is
seen in the fact that when trees are
cut in August or thereabouts, the
root is killed, while if cut in spring
they will quite generally spring up
again.
The early part of the seasons
growth, when the plant is gorged
with sap, it is its nature to put out
new growth OF wood, extend in
new directions, repair INJURIES and
the like; during the latter stages of
its growth, this it cannot naturally
do, but its growth is changed in en-
tirely different direction, namely,
forming flowers and seeds, and now
if its top be entirely removed, it is
not the nature of the roots to send
up a new growth of wood; therefore
they must perish.
A plant cannot live without It's
top and leaves, because even the
roots themselves could not be nour-
ished. and it is very necessary they
should be. Though they might
take up in solution mineral substan-
ces and gases in large quantities
from the earth. they could not be
directly nourished by this crude sap.
The carbon which the plants would
require, and which more than half
of dry vegetation is composed of,
is locked up by the strongest chem
ical afiinities in a sort of useless
compound carbonic acid, which
must be decomposed by the most
delicate of all structures-the leaf
cell-before the plant can obtain its
supply of carbon. Thus the pro-
priety of the theory, if plants, or
rather weeds, are not allowed to
have any leaves they will die. If
the weeds are kept from having any
leaves, either by blowing, moving,
or in any other way, they will never
be any bother Country Gentle
man,