186 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



caused from the fact that the land was not shaded sufficiently, 

 and a few days of hot sun killed the wheat before it was filled. 

 Under such circumstances a good growth of clover will often 

 save the crop by protecting the soil from the heat until the 

 wheat fills. 



The best remedy for most enemies of the crop is a thrifty 

 plant. I have little fear of fly, chinch bug, or winter kill- 

 ing on a manured soil or with a plant that gets a thrifty start 

 in the fall. While there will come an occasional season of 

 short crops, and circumstances beyond our control will perhaps 

 bring a failure ; yet he who farms well will often escape, when 

 his careless neighbor loses his crop. In the locality where I 

 live we are not troubled with weeds in the wheat field, but I 

 know that in other places there are pests which give the farmer 

 great trouble and often reduce the yield of his crop. The 

 remedies are : first, early plowing and thorough preparation of 

 the seed-bed, and this has already been shown to be the best 

 way to insure a good crop ; and second, the sowing of clover, 

 which occupies the land so completely that other plants can not 

 thrive, and this also is of benefit to the land. So we see that 

 clean farming is good farming, and that only good farming is 

 profitable farming. 



