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Show WEEDS CAUSE TIRE TROUBLE Weeds Which Bring Automobile Auto-mobile Difficulties Are Many Pronged Tack, rusty nails, Klass and sharp stones are no longer the only things , to be dreaded by those who ride on ! pneumatic tires. According to a government gov-ernment report, motorists and bicyclists bicy-clists will soon be waging as vigorous a fight on weeds as farmers and gardeners gar-deners ever have There Is a little plant as dire In Its effect on Inflated tires as witch grass on alfalfa or wild parsley In a truck garden. Its Latin name is triblus terrestrls, but its American one is even more expressUe puncture weed. Puncturo weed is at present found principally In Arizona and southern California, but It Is spreading so rapidly rap-idly that a nation-wide Investigation Is being conducted by experts of the L. S. department of agriculture Tho .pest was originally o native of Europe I and was brought to this country on the fleece of shoep Tho seeds which cause all the trouble are many-pronged and meas-I meas-I ure from a quarter to a half-Inch In diameter They have a way of sticking to any pneumatic tire which rolls oyer them and sooner or later cause griof to the motorist Of course, they have difficulty in working their way through tho fabric of thick, now tires, but they often do. and a worn tire Is liable to bo pierced in many places. One tire, according to the gnvernmcni Investigators, was found punctured In seventy places by these tiny burrs In California one-hulf the bioyole tire punctures are caused in this way Miller tiro 'en say a lurge percentage of automobile tire trouble in sections where the post Is prevalent prev-alent Is also to be attributed to the puncture weed. Even though thev do not puncturo the tiro when they stick to it. tho burrs of the puncture plafit are' spreading spread-ing mosr rapidly by this means. After Af-ter rolling iloiikr for miles and miles, they at length become dislodged and take root In new territory, producing u myriad of splnv seeds to add to next year's punctures. |