. Agriculture for beginners. Fig. 58. A Spud Fig. 59. Hounds Tongue A third group of weeds consists of those that live formore than two years. These weeds are usually most diffi-cult to kill. They propagate by means of running root-stocks as well as by seeds. Plants that live more thantwo seasons are known as perennials and include, for exam-ple, many grasses, dock, Canada thistle, poison ivy, passionflower, horse nettle, etc. There are many methods of 7^ AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS destroying perennial weeds. They may be dug entirelyout and removed. Sometimes in small areas they may bekilled by
. Agriculture for beginners. Fig. 58. A Spud Fig. 59. Hounds Tongue A third group of weeds consists of those that live formore than two years. These weeds are usually most diffi-cult to kill. They propagate by means of running root-stocks as well as by seeds. Plants that live more thantwo seasons are known as perennials and include, for exam-ple, many grasses, dock, Canada thistle, poison ivy, passionflower, horse nettle, etc. There are many methods of 7^ AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS destroying perennial weeds. They may be dug entirelyout and removed. Sometimes in small areas they may bekilled by crude sulphuric acid or may be starved by cover-ing them with boards or a straw stack or in some otherconvenient way. A method that is very effective is tosmother the weeds by a dense growth of some other plant,for example, cowpeas or buckwheat. Cowpeas are to be preferred, since they rf/m. also enrich the soil bythe nitrogen that theroot tubercles do injury innumerous ways: theyshade the crop, stealits nourishment, andwaste its their onlyservice is to make lazypeople till their crops. EXERCISE You should learn toknow by name the twentyworst weeds of your vicin-ity and to recognize theirseeds. If there are any weeds you are not able to recognize, send a sample to your State Experiment Station. Make a collection, properly labeled, of weeds and weed seeds for your school. Procure from the Department of Agriculture Farmers Bulletin 28 on Weeds and How to Kill Them. Fig. 60. Canada Thistle THE PLANT -j-j SECTION XXI —SEED PURITY AND VITALITY Seeds produce plants. The difference between a largeand a small yield may depend upon the kind of plants weraise, and the kind of plant in turn is dependent upon theseeds that we sow. Two considerations are important in the selection ofseeds, — namely, purity and vitality. Seeds should bepure; that is, w
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