The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1902-01-09
THE SCIENCE OF WEEDS

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-~r.,o.-.r., ...-.,v ...,.,..
Theodore Dresser, in Ainslee's Magazine.
Vast sums Of money and an army of
men are being employed by the gov
eminent to locate, understand and
put TO their proper uses the weeds of
the country. From every town and
hamlet and country wayside this great
government gathers reports concern
ing these vegetable outlaws. The i'm
pudent dock that surreptitiously slips
his seed on the coat of passerby in
Nebraska is recorded in the annals of
the agricultural department, and the
line OF the docks progress is marked
on the maps which show the areas OF
distribution in the United States. 1t
is now known what and where the
weeds are, and constant surveillance
is kept over them. Those that threat
en- to become pests are headed off by
all the forces of government. 1t is a
fact that an order to kill some lone
specimen of a perniciousCanada thistle
has been sent by telegraph from Wash
ington.
There is, however, little need Of en-
couraging the destruction of weeds.
The thing important now is TO utilize
these that have been found indispen-
sable. There are weeds that are soil
reviewers, weeds that are food for man
and beast and weeds without which
thousands Of acres of our most fertile
lands would be wastes today. These
weeds the government is endeavoring
to preserve. 1t is surprising in the
light of these discoveries to consider
man IS attitude toward weeds in gen.
eral. That he should have sworn at
them, sought measures of extermina-
ton, plowed them toilsomely under
year after year and yet himself re-
NAMED really handicapped in the bat
tie for substance because he lacked
the aid which one or more of these
would have readily given him seems
incongruous. One kind if properly
used would have supplied deficient
soil with potash, another would have
brought it the needed lime, third
the nitrogen or PHOSPHORUS, taking it
out Of the atmosphere and uepositing
it where his crops of cereals and
vegetables would readily draw upon it
and wax strong. In one he could
have found a better food for his cattle
than he ever had before, in another a
hardy worker capable of thriving with
scarcely any rain and yet making re-
turns in food or fertilizer far beyond
the petty achievements of the most
pampered and cultivated of domestic
plants. The outlaws of husbandry
have for ages held the secret of bind
ing the sands of the sea so as to fix
the shore, of digging deeper than any
pillow and searching for the minerals
which. make deficient land arabic, anG
of drawing upon the atmosphere and
taking from 1T the valuable chemical:
which no farmer is rich enough to buy
in sufficient quantities to make his
poor holding profitable. These band
Its of the garden have turned out fol
the most part to be saviors and man,
best friends, and so clearly have theil
distinguished merits become tha
scientists are even apologizing for tn,
need of calling any Of the remaining
and as yet little understood vegeta
ton. weeds. So we have all unused
plants now divided into poisonous ant
nonpoiSOnous, with the reservation
that all may be and probably ar
extremely useful. If poisonous, tn
! new attitude is to find out why
Where the poison comes fr0m-out O
the air or the earth. How is it dis
titled? What is it's nature? Wheth
er it is known or unknown poison
What its effect may be en- one ant
every other object, particularly upol
life and growth. These and other
, are the questions scientists seek t
lanswer by investigating the weeds.