Word: soils
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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There the night fog wisps early along the creek valley, and the silence is broken only by the howl of timber wolves. There Orval Faubus, prematurely born and weighing only 4 Ibs., "growed like a weed" in the hardest of all soil. There Orval learned about politics from his father, "Uncle Sam" Faubus, a sort of mountain Populist. Last week in the Ozark woods, Uncle Sam, crippled from arthritis but still scratching a living from his hillside farm, mused on his son's fame. "Little Orval," said J. Sam Faubus, "he was different to most boys. Kids like...
...establish friendly ties with Poland, and their best means is to abandon some of the German claims to what is now Polish territory. Should this ever come to pass, the Kremlin would be put on the spot-asked to answer why Russia was still hanging onto former Polish soil...
Patient Seeds. Witchweed's way of life is one of the strangest in nature. The plants produce vast numbers of barely visible seeds, sometimes as many as half a million from a single plant. The seeds fall to the ground and mix with the soil, where they can lie for 20 years without losing vitality. A seed does not normally germinate until the rootlet of a suitable plant creeps close to it through the soil. Influenced by a mysterious substance that the root secretes, the seed wakes up. Out of it pokes a root that snakes through the soil...
...sends a shoot above the ground, unfolds green leaves in the sunlight, and manufactures its food by photosynthesis like any respectable plant, while still getting its water and minerals from the host's roots. Soon its little red flowers bloom and its myriad dustlike seeds poison the soil around...
Trap Plants. The witchweed-infested area is now quarantined, and strict measures are taken to keep the pest from spreading. The scientists are none too hopeful. Witchweed seeds are invisible when mixed with soil, and they can be carried by farmers' boots, auto tires, shipments of farm products or almost anything else that moves. Experts shudder to think what would happen if a hurricane were to pick up the seeds and scatter them like smoke. The parasite can probably thrive throughout the South, from Virginia to eastern Texas. It can live on wild grasses, including the common crabgrass...