Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1871 — The Weeds. [ARTICLE]

The Weeds.

" Tins Is the aeedlng time of the weeds. InstiDCtively, as It were, they seem to have exercised choice in the selection of time of ripening their seed, placing it when the fanner is crowded with the labor of the harvest, and grudges every moment devoted to other work. But the weeds mustbe combated, or they will overwhelm us. They must not be allowed to ripen and scatter their seed to render their eradication tenfold tnore troublesome. Boipe weeds can be extirpated by timely and paralstent outlay just wheu the seed is marly formed. The dock and Canada thistle are among this class of perennials. All annuals can be eradicated by being prevented from seeding. Thistles cut when the blossoms first begin to open will disappear after a lew years, if the practice is folldwed. Weeds should be cut in pastures and fence corners, and on the road sides. We have noticed that the eider has increased a good deal hereabouts within a few years. It has the good sense, however, never to step out into the fields, but contents itself with fence corners and byplaces. We arc half inclined to think that it is because the June blossoms of the elder are so pretty, and its masses of bright berries so showy in the autumn, and it is so modest in its claims on territory, that the farmers suffer its clumps to hide many an ugly fence corner and rough stone heap. —American Rural Home.