CHAPTER XIV. 



Weeding Weeds defined Effects of Methods of removal 

 Beginning early Rapid multiplication "White 

 weed " Hay Weeding by hand With the scraper 

 With the mammotie Burying in Weeding contracts 

 Rates. 



WEEDING is a work of the first importance, and 

 must be attended to from the very outset. And 

 this for several reasons ; in the first place, the 

 plants cultivated ought to have the soil reserved 

 for them entirely, whatever is abstracted from it by 

 other vegetation being just so much waste of 

 power. Moreover, weeds, growing as they do 

 close together over the whole surface, have a 

 peculiarly exhausting effect upon the soil, from 

 which they draw off moisture and organic matter. 

 They also smother the objects of culture, depriving 

 them of light and air, and preventing the ground 

 from being enriched by the dews and by the 

 atmosphere. Weeds, especially those of the grass 

 description, also bind the soil together, and render 

 it less penetrable by the roots of the plant it is 



