STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 23 



the radishes were big enough to be seen, we couldn't see them 

 because the weeds were larger than the radishes. We waited then 

 until the ground was so wet the fields were unfit to work and then 

 pulled weeds in the garden ; they pulled easier then. The weeds do 

 not come to the common farms alone. While looking over one of 

 the State experiment stations this fall I happened to get sight of 

 a kitchen garden belonging to the Professor of Agriculture, because 

 my attendant told me so, but if there had been a watermelon in that 

 garden as big as a barrel, it could not have been seen five rods away 

 because of the weeds. The way not to have weeds in your garden 

 or anywhere else is to keep them from going to seed. Of course a 

 few seeds will be carried in, but they are not to be compared to the 

 thousands and tens of thousands t^t would be produced by a few 

 weeds left to go to seed. 



Kill the weeds when they are small. It won't take long when 

 the weeds are first appearing to go over the ground with a garden 

 rake, and that would be all that is necessary ; but if you wait until 

 they are larger, until che weed roots have a firm hold on the soil, it 

 is not so quickly done. If you have planted your rows of vegetables 

 eighteen inches or two feet apart and in rows the full length of the 

 garden, you could take one of those cultivator harrows of chaugable 

 width and cultivate with a horse. It would take much less time 

 besides being more thoroughly done. 



A good farmer will not cultivate his own corn when the ground 

 is too wet, and the same reasons that apply to the cultivation of 

 corn will apply to the cultivation of the garden. Cultivate often 

 and cultivate thoroughly. 



We made our garden up in beds about four feet wide and eight 

 or ten or twenty feet long, and there were paths around every bed. 

 This was done that the weeds might be pulled out without stepping 

 among the vegetables to pack down the soil. We don't do that 

 now, but plant everything in long, straight rows with room enough 

 to walk without stepping on plants. 



We planted lettuce, onions, radishes, etc., in the spring as soon 

 as it was warm enough and the ground was in good condition to 

 work. Sometimes there would be other plantings of these things 

 later in the season and sometimes not. I don't think we were an 

 exceptionally thriftless lot of people. All these little things take 

 time, and a farmer doesn't like to lose time from the things that 

 look big for the things that are small. The garden never brings in 

 any money as the field of corn or the hogs that may be grown on 

 the corn do. And in the case of a great many of us it is the money 

 in view that is the great incentive to work. Now if the garden 

 vegetables were to be grown in long rows so they could be cultivated 

 with horsepower, instead of boy or woman-power, it would take 

 much less time and be very much more satisfactory. Land is not so 



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