Daniel Webster And His Contemporaries

PREFACE. Tough thistles choked the fields and killed the corn, And an unthrifty crop of weeds was borne.-Dryden. Long has it been said that An ill weed grows apace, yet few are the books that tell us how to check that growth. The wild plants which dwell most closely with US, those with which we are most familiar, are many of them weeds, yet of them and their history ure know but little. Whence came they How did they get here What, if any, are their uses What is their place among other plants in the great scheme of Nature How can we best control or get rid of them Those are the questions which we endeavor to answer in this book on Indiana weeds. By the U. S. Department of Agriculture it has been estimated that to crop and meadow lands weeds cause an aperage annual loss of one dollar per acre. As at least two-thirds of the area of Indiana is comprised of such lands it follows that the annual loss in this State is 15,509,330 from weeds alone. This great loss falls almost wholly upon the farmer and it is for him, therefore, that this book has been especially written. In the simplest manner possible we hare endeavorcd to describe the worst weeds of the State, show their place among other plants and give the most practicable methods for their control or eradication. While the average farrner spends most of his years in fighting weeds, he knom-s too little ahont them. A man is not considered much of a carpenter unless he knolvs the different kinds of lumber and the uses to which each can best be put nor can he beeome much of a printer unless he gets acquainted with the different forms of type and learns how hest to set them for the most effective display...