2 WEEDS OF THE FARM AND GARDEN 



$100,000,000 annually. All of this could be prevented by 

 applying better methods of cultivation. I have also had 

 a very complete illustration that the removal of weeds 

 increased the crop greatly in the case of a cornfield 

 which contained a great deal of quack grass. In 1908 

 this field was cleaned and the present season has been 

 in oats. The treated field contained one-third more oats 

 to the acre than the weedy adjacent fields. 



The same has been shown to be true also in some ex- 

 periments made by Professors Edson and Eaton, for 

 Vermont; they report not only a much larger yield but 

 more fodder. The yield in fodder in some cases was two 

 and one-fourth tons. 



Why Weeds Are Injurious. Weeds are injurious to 

 the farmer because they exhaust the soil of the valuable 

 nutrient material required for the crop. No one succeeds 

 in obtaining a good yield of corn, wheat or other culti- 

 vated crop where weeds are allowed undisputed sway. 

 The difference can be noticed at once when one farmer 

 keeps his field clean and his neighbor allows weeds to 

 grow. The one may obtain 60-70 bushels per acre from 

 his field, while the latter has but thirty-five. Surely it 

 does not pay to allow weeds to grow on land worth 

 seventy-five or eighty or one hundred dollars per acre- 

 Prof. H. L. Bolley says: "It is quite evident that if 

 one sows enough seed wheat or other cereal to give 

 a proper planting for the largest possible yield of 

 grain, that it will not be possible to obtain this fullest 

 yield if the ground already contains countless seeds of 

 many sorts of weeds. One of the worst fallacies that is 

 known to farming is indicated at this point. Almost 

 every farmer knows some sort of weed which he thinks, 

 or at least says he thinks, is of no harm to the wheat crop. 

 For example, many persons have said French weed does 

 not hurt the wheat crop, and many persist in saying that 

 common mustard does not reduce the yield of wheat or 



