The Great Ragweed Campaign of 1939

In the summer of 1939 the Garden Club of Harvard organized a special ragweed eradication campaign. It was carried out by a group of school children under the leadership of Mrs. Frank Cummings, Miss Grace Cummings, and other Garden Club members. Trucks hauled away an estimated total of 428 bushels of ragweed that was pulled up by the children, mostly along the roadsides.
All home owners in town were asked to cooperate by pulling up ragweed in their own gardens and back yards. To arouse interest in the campaign, Miss Clara Endicott Sears wrote some verses entitled “Routing theWitch” which were printed and widely distributed that summer.

ROUTING THE WITCH By Clara Endicott Sears.

Sound the bugle – ring the bell.
Let the tocsin peal the knell
Of the noxious weeds blow
For old Witch Ragweed’s a goin’ to go.
Father, Mother, daughter, son,
Boy Scout, Girl Scout, everyone
Seize your hoe and pick and spade
Rout her out from hill and glade
Sneezing, wheezing, cough, and bubble
Rid the roadsides of this trouble.
Sound the bugle – ring the bell
Get some old Town-crier to tell
The good news, that all may know
Old Witch Ragweed’s goin’ to go. (Pause here)
And out she goes!

The Worcester Girl Scout Camp at Bare Hill Pond also took part in the campaign and another group worked in Shaker Village. Prizes were given to the boys and girls who had the best hauls. Prizes were awarded at a party which Mrs. Cummings gave at her house early in September for all who had taken part in the campaign.

According to the article in Ida Harris’s book, “Enter the New Century, “the heat of summer ended the campaign. The effort achieved results from an educational standpoint however, as it taught many people, old and young, to recognize ragweed and called attention to its abundance and to the misery it causes so many people.”

Information from "History of Harvard Massachusetts 1880 -1940. Enter the New Century"
Pictures from the archives at the Harvard Historical Society