FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 489 



such a united breadth as to exactly cover the ground will usually fail to take 

 all of the weeds because at the edge of the shovel the weeds will often move 

 aside and escape, as we all know it is impossible to maintain a keen cutting 

 edge upon such tools. I have found in my work that very wide blades are 

 most eflfective for this later work with larger weeds and even then they must 

 be so set that the cut of the back shovel overlaps the cut of the front one. 

 With all this, however, many weeds escape and must be dealt with directly 

 and individually by that ancient, much despised, but eflfective tool, the hoe. 

 Progressive men, in the spring, plan to keep their crops clean with such 

 horse tools as they can ride upon, but autumn and the succeeding year 

 make it very evident that too many weeds have escaped destruction. Hand 

 work to some extent is a necessity which can not be escaped, but it can be 

 made much less by careful and intelligent use of horse tools. 



Beyond all this it still remains that different weeds must have different 

 treatment. A smartweed uprooted with a tip of a branch covered with 

 dirt will take new root and make an enormous crop of seed, a single plant 

 making seed enough to abundantly seed a quarter of an acre, so be sure the 

 smartweed is all on top of the ground and in full sunshine if possible, and it 

 will require several days even of such exposure to put it beyond power of 

 recovery. A purslane pulled up and laid on top of the ground affords an 

 interesting object of study. As it feels the wind and sun it wilts, next it 

 reduces its exposed surface by dropping off its leaves, meanwhile trying to 

 get a hold upon the ground by movements of its branches to effect a contact- 

 Failing so far it drops its sprays, later, if • necessary, its smaller branches, 

 next larger branches and so on constantly reducing its exposed evaporating 

 surface until the evaporation is not greater than absorption from the dew 

 aad the earth supplies, then roots push out from the part of stem in contact 

 with the earth and growth begins, and soon the struggling plant has re- 

 gained what it had lost in its valiant struggle for life. 



After all these things, after the harrows, the cultivators and the hoes 

 have done their work, there are weeds in places these tools never reach 

 which must have attention, and a scythe or some similar tool seems to be 

 the only thing for them. Use the mowing machine where you can and use 

 it often and there are yet weeds left where you must use a scythe. 



When it comes to this tool you must follow the example set by old Father 

 Time, viz: have a good scythe, keep it sharp and keep it in constant use. 

 Weeds ripen seeds at such varying times that no date can be fixed where one 

 cutting per year is sufficient. This was and is the strongest objection to the 

 Iowa law compelling the cutting of weeds along the roadside. At the date 

 fixed many very bad weeds had already ripened their crop of seeds and yet 

 others had ample time to grow and ripen a crop after the cutting had been 

 done. Frequently repeated cuttings must be made to prevent the produc- 

 tion of seeds. Do not forget that the single stroke of a scythe at the proper 

 time and place will be more effective to control the increase of weeds than 

 hours or even days of hard work next year. Never loose sight of the neces- 

 sity of cutting these weeds just before the earliest of its seeds have reached 

 a degree of ripeness that makes it possible for them to grow and produce 

 more weeds. 



If by any chance one of these troublesome plants escapes you and is found 

 to have ripened seed upon it, the only way then left open is to pull it up 



