Rotation of Crops in Vegetable-Gardening 33 



According to Director Stubbs of the Louisiana Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station, it is a detrimental practice in 

 the South, and the green manure should be allowed to rot 

 before it is plowed under. The decomposition of the 

 green matter is said to create a ferment in the soil detri- 

 mental to crops that may follow. 



Weeds. 



If the definition that a weed is a plant out of place, is 

 accepted, almost any plant may become a weed. On the 

 other hand, perhaps almost every weed may, in some way, 

 become an economic plant. Most weeds certainly play 

 havoc with a crop ; they are ever present, springing up, 

 it seems spontaneously, to take up the available fertilizer 

 that was intended for the crop, thus leaving the seedlings 

 in a sickly and weak condition, unable to withstand insect 

 attacks and diseases. 



It has been shown very clearly that many weeds harbor 

 diseases of crops. Some of the plant diseases are carried 

 through the winter by weeds, and in spring produce spores 

 which are disseminated to the crops. Other weeds act 

 simply as harborers of insects, which leave the weed as 

 soon as more refined food can be found. Poke-weed is a 

 prolific source of root-knot ; fire-weed multiplies the sclero- 

 tium tomato blight ; pepper-grass harbors club-root ; and 

 so we might continue a long enumeration of the diseases 

 of crops that will grow on weeds. Another pernicious ef- 

 fect of weeds is the untidy appearance they present when 

 allowed to grow. When dry they invite fire and are 

 often the road to the destruction of much property. 



