1? MORALS OF ELMS, WORMS 113 



trebled (it often is) if the average farmer knew 

 certain things — if he knew, for instance, that 

 the one most important object of cultivating 

 com is the destruction of weeds, which is a 

 superficial operation. The deeper plowing and 

 hoeing so often practiced destroy millions of 

 roots and rootlets, and thus do infinitely more 

 harm than good. 



In the Country Gentleman for April 5, 

 1919, L. F. Graber gave the following expert 

 testimony on this point which every gardener 

 and farmer should take to heart: 



Thirty years ago Professor Morrow of the University 

 of Illinois found that he could reduce the yields of com 

 seventeen bushels an acre by simply placing a frame 

 twelve inches square over the hills and running a knife 

 blade four inches deep round the outside. This was the 

 first experiment showing the danger of root pruning 

 from deep cultivation. The evidence gathered by numer- 

 ous experiment stations since then in favor of shallow 

 cultivation is so abundant and overwhelming that 

 nothing more need be said, but considerable consterna- 

 tion among experimenters and com growers was caused 

 by the publication of a bulletin four years ago by the 

 Illinois station giving data showing increased yields from 

 fw cultivation at all. 



With an average of sixteen tests covering a period of 

 eight years, it was found that killing weeds without cul- 

 tivation — that is, by scraping them off with a sharp hoe 

 — gave 17.1 per cent, or 6.7 bushels, more com an acre 

 than was possible with ordinary cultivation. At the 

 outset these results appear astounding, but a study of 

 the data reveals those very fundamental and basic 



