The Topeka state journal., 1908-07-15
FROM OTHER PENS
FIGHT THE WEEDS.

1hlS mas Deen remarkable growing
season, and the weeds are thriving as
we'll as the crops. Look at them in the
gardens that are not properly tended; !;
look at them in the fence corners of
some of the farms; look at them along
the roads. They are vigorous speci-
mems of plant life. There is something
about their thrift that inspires the ap-
probation of people who do not stop
to think of it's sinister significance as a
menace to the crops. 1t will not fool
the farmers, however. From the stand
point of everyone conversant with agri-
culture weeds are enemies. whose pros
perity is to be dreaded; and their -four
ishing aspect at the present time will
suggest the policy of cutting them down
| before they mature and scatter tsc,r
seeds.
People who moralize on the reasons
of the phenomena of life are likely to
differentiate weeds from the generality
of nonutilitarian species of plants
which grow without cultivation, by
their remarkable tenacity of existence.
are easily discouraged and which dis
appear before the advance Of civiliza-
| tion. The arbutus may be cited among
| hundreds of others. What are called
| weeds are nonutilitarian plants whose
seeds are numerous and likely to be
widely scattered, or whose roots are
strong and difficult to eradicate from
| the soil, or which possess both of these
characteristics, like the dandellon, the
| thistle and the burdock.
Consider the struggle for life which
| the weed must make to maintain it.
| self in any region Inhabited by man
| who plows up the weed and puts into
| the earth the seeds Of the plants he
| wants, and carefully cultivates the
! ground where he has sown his favorite
growths, and sometimes waters them
\ when seasons are dry and sprays them
| to protect them from their insect ene-
mics, but never Willingly does any,
| thing to help the weed, and whose nor
| NAL attitude toward the weed in every
| form is that of relentless hostility. 1t Is
precisely because nature has 80 vel
| equipped certain plants for the strug-
| gle for life that man has come to des.
| ignate them as weeds and has learned
| to hate them.-Milwaukee Wisconsin.
ART OF SPELLING.
| A significance that will escape the
attention of many people attaches tt
] the fact that a colored girl made the
| highest score in the national spelling
match in Cleveland. What is empha'
| sized by this circumstance is, thai
spelling is largely, a mechanical pro
cast of mind frequently found in ne
| groes. may account logically for the re-
suit of the contest in the Forest city.
| IT is very well known that many o.
| the current Writers WHoSe PfouuClion'
are most in vogue among the reader'
/ of good literature are compelled to en-
/ pIoy a secretary to fix up their spell
ing. Bad orthography, of course, look
awful in print and on the written pag'
| is properly imputed to vulgarity- New
ertheless, correct spelling is not by an,
manner of means, an invariable talen
of original minds, any more than origin
atty is a common gift of unimpeach
able spoilers.
Again, the facility for spelling II
largely organic. Good spoilers may b.
made" but those who are born" ar
surer and better If you will turn bacl
your memory to your school days VII
Won not find that the boy or the gir
that was first choice when it came t
"choosing sides" was not, usual,
speaking, a phenomenon in Arithmetic
or geography, or even In grammar
Their perfection in orthography Neem
ed to be natural, rather than acquired
II-Kansas City Star.