The Savannah morning news., 1902-01-13

They Earn Their Right to Live by
the Most Hardy Efforts.
(Theodore Dresser in Ainslee's.)

How they migrate has been accu-
rately shown in the case of every kind
of weed extant in the United States.
Some travel exceedingly slow by means
of runners or slender radiating
branches, which reach out anywhere
from ten inches to ten feet along the
ground and produce plantlets 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 ma
chimes. Still others finding the battle
for life difficult, develop strange quail
tiles. Prof A. n. Prentiss, of Cornell
University, has demonstrated by ex-
pertinent that a Canada thistle root,
cut into pieces onefourth of an inch
long, can produce shoots from nearly
every piece. So when the share of the
plow digs down to cut and tear this
irhabitant from its home il more Of
ten aids in it's further distribution.
"one of the most interesting yet least
known methods by which plants travel
short distances is by throwing their
sseeds. When the pods of the common
tare are mature they dry in such
manner as TO produce a strong oblique
tension on the two sides of the pod.
These finally split apart and curl spr-
ally, with such sudden movement up
ward as to hurl the peas several feet
Many others progress in the same way
the common spurge and wood sorrel in
particular
Many weed seeds have special adap-
tlVes that enable them to take adyant-
age OF the wind or float highly on wa
ter. Dandelion, prickly lettuce, Canada
thistle, horseweed. milkweed and many
others equip their seeds with some
feathery or winglike apparatus that
enables them to sail. Ordinarily the
distance this equipment can carry is
TWO miles, but high wind or hurri-
cane would bear them ten or fifteen.
Yet with two exceptions. the most ran
idly migrating weeds have not Travelled
In this way. Frozen ground or snow is
ahotner great aid to the hardy migrat-
ing weed because seeds are blown along
Tor great distances. Buttonweed. giant
ragweed and barnyard grass all pro
gress In this way because their seeds
are produced late in the season. and
many of them are held with such ten
aclty mat they are dislodged only by
oNAVhSNSl WluuS, WnGn The COn6i-
lions are favorable for distant iour
neys. BY that time the ground ia rs
uaily frozen or covered with snow. and
the seeds skip merrily along before
every stray gust. This method of seed
dispersion is now known TO account
IN part for the general presence of
fssweed, mayweed and others along
cur country roads. 1t also shows that
weeds are distributed much more ran
loiy over fields left bare during the
winter tnan over those covered with
some crop that will catch the rolling
SEEDS. Prof. Bailey, of the Fargo N n
Agricultural College, found bv exnar
lment that wheat grains drifted ove,
SNOW on level field at the rate of 5Oo
Ieet minute. with the wind bIowing
twenty-five miles an hour. Lighter oT
angular grains were found to drift noora
rapidly. ~ Va IL hiore
Some weeds migrate by tunbIip,
the Whole plant, seed and all. witheT
ing INTO a sort of ball and rolling be-
lore the wind. Such are best develon-
~ ~ III the prairie region, where there is
ittle to impede their progress and
where there are strong winds tn dri,,a
Inefn, but they are found also in tbo
eastern states, where they NAV he
seen IN bitches, gullies and fence cor
iieFs' swept bare of their seeds befora
the winter is out.
:, some weeds depend for their widest
olstribution upon the hooked characfa,.
OF thelr seeds, which stick to the bide
OF cattle or the clothing Of men. Thev
naHe peen known TO travel hundreds of
ilne SUMS way. and the ground about
Cne great stock yards in Chicago ana
other cities is rich in weeds nof cor,1
mon to that territory Migrating birds
sweep SEEDS through space for thou
SANDS OF miles. and 1t is thought that
Some OF the weed importations from
central and South America have come
this way. AF0 Soile
railways are highways no less for
me progressive weed than for man
oeeus urop from cars and from the
cals s ana from the clothes of passen-
ss SeIs an along the line. The most pro
nnc weeds, particularly the Russian
thistle, have been introduced ar wida-
~ separated points throughout The
uhlted states almost simultaneously
py this means. They come in straw
USED Tor packing, and in grain not per
lectly cleaned. The country towns
that receive the freight are breeding
places and the men who handle If are
carriers. The weeds get everywhere
because the seeds survive long and are
equipped to cling and travel. Bv CEN
tufles or struggle they have acquired
the ability to adapt themselves TO al
most any quality of soil or to any
Kind Of atmosphere. They earn their
right to live by the most hardy ef
forts. No plant of culture could ever
endure the knocks which they receive
and survive. Heat, cold, drought. frost
soggy rains, unnatural soils, all anIict
the travelling seed by turns. Yet II win
face the situation, dig deep. reach higa.
even change its diet and its very ma
ture before it will give up the strug-
gle. That it should be of some use is
a long-delayed but just conclusion of
science. The outlaw of the fruitful
fields is to-day most often the helper
and savior of the arid way Equipped
with powerful constitution and giant
energy, the worst of the weeds NAV
readily become the best of the plants.
out of this branch of weed study is
certain to come remarkable informa-
tion, for the poisonous plants are the
most strangely constituted and given
to astounding variations. For instance.
the common poke berry presents a
spectacle of contradictory qualities.
Birds eat the berries which TO men are
poisonous. Cattle may eat the leaves
when green and fresh, but IL. per-
chance, they should eat a wilted leaf IL
would poison them. The roots are dead
ly poison, yet the shoots which grow
up six inches high In the spring are an
excellent food for man-the rival OF
asparagus and equally healthful. Sci
ence has at last paused TO inquire why
this should be SO, and some day the
chemical action which can make
deadly poison by willing a leaf when
the fresh one is harmless will be dis