PART IV 



VARIOUS FARM PRODUCTS. 



WEEDS. 



If the weed is an annual, reproducing itself from the seeds 

 only and dying root and branch each year, it may be subjected by 

 preventing seed production. The seeds of many annuals retain their 

 vitality for several years, so that if they once become abundant in the 

 soil they are likely to germinate at irregular intervals, and thus 

 cause trouble for a long time, even though no fresh seed is intro- 

 duced. In this case merely preventing the production of seed will 

 gradually reduce the quantity of weeds and will prevent any further 

 spreading. 



For permanent pastures, lawns, and roadsides this is often the 

 most practical method, and it is quite sufficient if persistently fol- 

 lowed. In cultivated fields the land thus seeded should first be 

 burned over to destroy as many as possible of the seeds on the sur- 

 face. It may then be plowed shallow, so as not to bury the remain- 

 ing seeds too deeply in the soil. The succeeding cultivation, not 

 deeper than the plowing, will induce the germination of seeds in 

 this layer of soil and kill the seedlings as they appear. The land 

 may then be plowed deeper and the cultivation repeated until the 

 weed seeds are pretty thoroughly cleared out to as great a depth as 

 the plow ever reaches. Below that depth 8 to 10 inches very few 

 weed seeds can germinate and push a shoot to the surface. A 

 thousand young seedlings may be destroyed in this manner by the 

 cultivator with less effort than a single mature plant can be de- 

 stroyed, and every seedling killed means one less weed seed in the 

 soil. Barren summer fallowing is often practiced to clear out weedy 

 land by the method just described ; but usually corn, potatoes, cotton, 

 cabbages, or beets may better be grown, giving a profitable return for 

 the extra cultivation. The best results canl>e obtained, of course, 

 with crops that allow cultivation during the greater part of the 

 season, and that do not shade the soil too much, as the direct rays of 

 the sun heating the surface of the soil aid materially in the germina- 

 tion of many seeds. 



As annual weeds ^usually thrive best in soil that has been 

 'broken but is not occupied, it is evident that broken land should not 

 be permitted to remain idle. Abundant crops of annual weed 

 seeds are matured every fall on potato and corn land and in stubble 

 fields, where a profitable crop of crimson clover or winter oats or 

 ?ye might have been grown. A little grass seed raked in on bare 

 hillsides will often keep down annual weeds and will at the same 



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