No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 343 



ing from day to day from month to month, pictures Which shall 

 bring rest and inspiration to all who will stop to look and drink in 

 their beauty. Nature in all its manifestations is before the farmer 

 and his family at every turn. Let him pause to read her message 

 and listen to her language. In the evolution of plants and animals 

 going on before his eyes may be seen a glimpse of creation taking 

 place at a far more rapid pace than in any wild plants and animals. 

 Then, too, comes the inspiring thought that some measure of this 

 creation is being given over into his own hands in the shaping and 

 developing of these forms and types. Here he may catch whispers 

 of the Divine Voice or read a message of Divine Revelation given to 

 man today in a language ever fresh and ever new. 



Let no farmer shirk these duties nor become so absorbed in his 

 pursuit of dollars tbat he fails to avail himself of these privileges. 



HOW TO RAISE CROPS WITHOUT WEEDS 



By DR. J. D. DETRICH, Scranton, Pa. 



The first to grow on a farm and the last to talk about on a program 

 at an agricultural Institute are weeds. Admitting with all fellow- 

 farmers, that weeds are universal nuisances, yea, robbers of plant 

 food and heavy drinkers of film water, depriving growing crops of 

 both, necessitates a greater need for their suppression if not entire 

 eradication in farm practice. To say that land can be put into 

 such a high state of fertility that weeds will not grow is a wrong 

 conception of soil and its nature. Yet without every inch of soil is 

 tillable and in a loose friable condition, also iu pu8iti(m for the opera- 

 tion of modern farm implements and machines to cut, plow and stir 

 the top soil, weeds will occupy the poorer as well as the best land. 

 Fences on farms are great weed harbors for their growth, ripening 

 and propagation, since the plow, mowing machines or cultivator 

 are prevented from destroying them owing to the fence being in 

 the way. Trees, rocks, stone piles and stumps in fields alike ob- 

 struct implements and machines from putting a stop to weeds. 



The edges of ponds, the banks of streams and open ditches like- 

 wise grow and mature weeds that reseed the land about them with 

 their baneful influence. A farm free from as many of these favor- 

 able places for weeds to grow unmolested, is a part of farm manage- 

 ment that can not afford to be overlooked, but strictly enforced 

 season after season till all weed harbors are destroyed or brought 

 under control. 



Perhaps this whole subject of growing crops without weeds can 

 in no way be made more intelligible than to cite an illustration 

 where a farm was actually carried on and noted for its scarcity 

 of weeds and at the same time remarkable for its fertility. The 

 weed problem on this farm was satisfactorily solved by pure seed, 

 thorough tillage, frequent cropping of maximum yields, thick seed- 



