404 VILLA GARDENING part v 



world ; but, as I take it, industry is the motive power of the 

 world — all things yield to it. And who can say how much of this 

 industry, so far as the cidtivator is concerned, is consequent upon 

 the growth of weeds 1 If there were no weeds the dullard and 

 shiggard woidd never hoe their crops, and the plants woidd lack 

 one great incentive to a rapid healthy growth ; so that altogether, 

 when rightly viewed, I am disposed to take a charitable view about 

 weeds. Until they gain the mastery weeds may be regarded as 

 friends in disguise ; but if not rooted out they are a great evil. 

 When the weeds are small, a man with a Dutch hoe can run through 

 a large piece of ground in a short time. If the work is done on a 

 fine sunny day thousands will perish, and the plants receive that 

 impetus to renewed growth which a freshly-stirred surface always 

 gives. I once told a gentleman, whose garden was in a bad con- 

 dition from the presence of so many weeds, that one year's seeding 

 caused seven years' weeding. He could not quite see the force of 

 the aphorism, but he lived to realise its truth. It is much easier, 

 and I need not say a gi-eat deal cheaper, to have land clean than 

 weedy. I have heard a former complain that he spent more money 

 in labour per acre than his neighbour did, and yet his neighbour's 

 land was cleaner than his. He could not understand this, or pro- 

 fessed that he could not, although the matter was jilain — one man 

 went into the fields early with the hoe — the horse-hoe where it was 

 practicable — and elsewhere the hand-tool was employed. It is an 

 old saying, "There is more work done with the head than the 

 hands," and work which has been well thought out beforehand is 

 usually better done. A supreme efl'ort should always be made to 

 cut down the weeds when small, so that they may lie on the land 

 and die. When a piece of land becomes weedy it forms a happy- 

 hunting-ground for snails, slugs, and other deleterious things, which, 

 like weeds, when numerous, are evidences of neglect. A well- 

 cultivated and clean garden is not so much infested with the 

 gardener's enemies, for the simi^le reason that they will not live 

 where a man is always beating up their quarters. Depend upon 

 it there is nothing like good cultivation, which is imijlied in the 

 words " deep culture " and frequent " surface-stirring," for getting 

 rid of weeds, slugs, snails, caterpillars, larvaj, maggots, etc., which 

 give so much trouble. It is an admitted fact that weakly plants 

 are more exposed to the attacks of their enemies than those in 

 vigorous health. 



