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your ground in magnificent shape, especially in the sand 

 soils of the semi-arid belt, so that you can continue the 

 use of the weeder by going lengthwise of the ridges and 

 completely destroy the weeds before they assume any 

 size / keeping your mulch in perfect condition to prevent 

 evaporation, going over the ground after each rain, as 

 in the cultivation of other crops, watching the condition 

 very closely in order that you may catch the ground just 

 when slightly moist before the crust has begun to form. 

 This does away with the weed cutting idea. 



THE WEED PROBLEM. 



The importance of getting ahead of the weeds and 

 keeping them down cannot be overstated. It is almost 

 impossible to select words from the English language 

 with sufficient force to impress upon the average farmer 

 the serious detriment to crops of even the small weeds. 

 To get a good corn crop the weeds must be kept out. 

 And it is far easier to keep the weeds from growing than 

 it is to kill them after they have become strong. An 

 illustration of what can be done in che semi-arid belt 

 will be given. 



On the Kilpatrick ranch, in Chase county, Nebraska, 

 in 1903, two hundred and seventy acres of listed corn 

 were handled in this manner. The weeder used was the 

 combination weeder and harrow made in sections the 

 same as the common steel harrow. This is an implement 

 that will be soon on the market generally, and its use 

 will be common. We used enough sections to cover six 

 rows of the corn, and the entire rield was gone over four 

 times before any other cultivator was used, and the corn 

 was then about eight to ten inches high. The suckers 

 or stools were from two to five inches long. A 

 two-row riding cultivator with two wide shovels on each 



