crab grass, purslane; biennials as bull
thistle and mulleins; perennials, like quack grass, Canada thistle,
ox-eye Daisy.

Will it pay? The annual cost of successfully fighting a weedy farm of
100 acres in Ontario has been found to be about $75. Good cultivation in
the long run pays a greater profit than slipshod culture. It not only
kills the weeds, but keeps the soil in condition for securing good
crops. It conserves moisture.

Perennial plants cannot gain any if the green leaves are not allowed to
appear. The nourishment stored in the root stocks underground will aid
the plant to send up slender leaves and if these remain, the plants gain
and recruit, but if the leaves start underground and are cut off before
coming to the light, these root stocks are drawn on again to furnish
food to start more leaves and thus, in time become exhausted.

SEEDS OF MICHIGAN WEEDS.

ASCOMYCETES.

[Illustration: Fig. 1.]

=Ergot.= _Claviceps purpurea._ This is a poisonous fungus, not a seed,
mentioned here because it is frequently found as an outgrowth of the
grain of many grasses, such as rye, timothy, red top. To mature spores,
it must pass to another stage requiring six months or more.

GRASS FAMILY. GRAMINEAE.

[Illustration: Fig. 2.]

=Quack-Grass. Couch-Grass.= _Agropyron repens_ (L.) Beauv. Florets about
1 cm. long, 5-nerved at the short-awned apex: grain seldom produced and
still less frequently found apart from the floral glume and palea,
linear, about 4 mm. long, base abruptly acute, apex rounded, rounded on
the back or outside, inside concave. Our worst weed. Introduced from
Europe.

[Illustration: Fig. 3.]

=Wild Oat.= _Avena fauta_ L. Freed from chaff the floral glume is firm,
rough, brown, thinly hairy, about 15 mm. long, awn from near the middle
2-4 cm. long with several firm twists, abruptly bent near the middle,
the true grain seldom separated from the firmer floral glume. A bad weed
in Oregon and California, seldom seen in Michigan.

[Illustration: Fig. 4.]

=Field Chess.= _Bromus arvensis_ (L.) Not often seen in this country;
floral glume 6-7 mm. long bearing an awn rather longer; grain much like
that of _B. secalinus_ which see. Introduced from Europe.

[Illustration: Fig. 5.]

=Soft Chess.= _Bromus hordeaceus_ L. (_Bromus mollis_). Floral glume
extending beyond the grain, 5-7 nerved, 6-9 mm. long, grain rounded on
the back, shape of a shallow boat, 6.5 mm. long, palea thin with
comb-li