Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1902-04-25
How Weeds MIGRATE.

Some travel exceedingly slow by
means of runners or slender radiat-
ing branches, which reach out any
where from ten inches to ten feet
along the ground and produce plant
let's at the ends, which take root and |
grow. Others progress by spreading |
underground working too deep to be |
disturbed either by grazing animals |
or moving machines. Still others |
finding the battle for life difficult, de- !
velop strange qualities Professor
A. N. Prentiss, of Cornell university |
has demonstrated by experiment that
a Canada thistle root. cut into pieces
one fourth OF an inch long, can produce
| shoots from nearly every piece. So
/ when the share of the plOw digs down
! to ont and tear this inhabitant from
| its home it more often aids in its
! futher distribution
"One Of the most interesting yet
! least known methods by which plants
travel short distances is by throwing
their seeds. When the pods of the
common tare are mature they dry in
such manner as to produce strong
oblique tension on the two sides of the
pod. These finally split apart and
curl spirally, with such sudden move
ment upward as to hurl the peas sew
eral feet. Many others progress in
the same way, the common spurge
and wood sorrel in particular.
Many weed seeds have special ad-
aptives that enable them to take ad-
vantage of the wind or float lightly
on water. Dandelion, prickly lettuce.
Canada thistle, horseweed. milkwead
and many others equip their seeds
with some feathery or winglike appar-
ratus that enables them to sail Or
dinarily the distance this equipment
can carry is two miles. but a high wind
or hurricane would bear them ten or
fifteen. Yet with two exceptions, the
most rapidly migrating weeds have not
travelled in this way. Frozen ground
or snow is another great aid to the
hardy migrating weed because seeds
are blown along for great distances,
, Buttonweed. giant ragweed and barn
yard grass all progress in this way,
, because their seeds are produced
late in the season, and many of them
5 are held with such tenacity that they
are dislodged only by the strongest
= winds, when the conditions are favor
able for distant journeys. BY that
I time the ground is usually frozen or
. covered with snow. and the seeds skip
y merrily along before every stray gust
l. This method of seed dispersion is now
known to account in part for the gen
b. eral presence of ragweed. mayweed
( and others along our country roads
70 1t also shows that weeds are distri
!, buted much more rapidly over fields
l. left bare during the winter than over
: those covered with some crop that vii
catch the rolling seeds. Professor
Bailey. of the Fargo On. d. agricul
tural college. found by experiment
that wheat grains drifted over snow OF
a level field at the rate of 500 feet {
L. minute. with the wind blowing twenty
five miles an hour. Lighter or angu
lar grains were found to drift NOR,
rapidly.
e Some weeds migrate by tumbling
e the whole plant, seed and all, wither
;. ing into a sort of ball and rolling be
:, fore the wind. Such are best develop
"a ed in the prairie region. where ther'
II is little to impede their progress an'
id where there are strong winds to driv,
RS them, but they are found also in TIL
d. Eastern states, where they may b.
AZ seen in bitches, gullies and fence col
a. ners. swept bare of their seeds befor
the winter is out.
Some weeds depend for their wild
est distribution upon the hooked char
acter of their seeds which stick to tn
hide of cattle or the clothing of mer
~ They have been known to travel huT
dreds of miles this way, and tn
ground about the great stock yard
in Chicago and other cities is rich i
weeds not common to that territory
Migrating birds sweep seeds throug
space for thousands of miles, and it
thought that some of the weed Nnpo
tations from Central and South Anne
lea have come this way.
Railways are highways no less fC
the progressive weed than for maj
Seeds drop from cars and from tn
clothes of passengers all along tn
D line. The most prolific weeds, pa
ticularly the Russian thistle. hay
. been introduced at widely separate
: points throughout the United State
) almost simultaneously by this mean
0 They come in straw used for packin
0 and in grain not perfectly cleane
The country towns that receive II
oH freight are breeding places and II
: men who handle it are carriers. TT
Z weeds get everywhere, because Il
O seeds survive long and are equippe
o to cling and travel BY centuries
o struggle they have acquired the alb
. ity to adapt themselves to almost al
. quality of soil or to any kind or atmo
y phere. They earn their right to liz
n by the most hardy efforts. No pla'
q of culture could ever endure Il
3 knocks which they receive and su
8 vive. Heat. cold, drouth, frost, sogi
rains, unnatural soils. all affiict Il
travelling seed by turns. Yet 1t W
= face the situation, dig deep, reat
u high, even change its diet and its We
q nature before it will give up the stru
s gle. That it should be of some u
" is a long-delayed but Just conclusiC
20 of science. The outlaw of the fru
l,SO full fields is to-day most often the h
: per and savior of the arid wa
o Equipped with a powerful constitute
~ and giant energy. the worst of Il
III weeds may readily become the be
the of the plants. II Ainslee's Magazir
ay.
au- Asa s. son of Albert Goodale, W
ns; killed at Newport recently, hea
ieu sled, which was standing on one siC
tie' falling upon him.
The 18th annual session of the gra
lOdga Vermont of the New Enpla