104 EG YP TTAX A GRIG UL TURK 



into which the plant roots may extend. At the same time 

 the earthing up protects the lower part of the stem and 

 the surface roots. In the case of maize, sugar cane and 

 potatoes, loosening the soil permits of the aerial roots or 

 rhizomes penetrating into the soil around the plant. 

 Fassing is discontinued when the plants are able to 

 completely shade the soil and prevent surface evaporation 

 and the growth of weeds. 



Without weeds, the sheep would fare but poorly, the 

 fellah would miss his salads, and the buffalo and oxen 

 would have little green summer food. The cultivator of 

 a few feddans must always consider the weeds as valuable 

 fodder for his cattle, but to the large cultivator weeds are 

 ever a loss. A weed may be defined as a plant which is 

 growing in a place where it was not intended to be grown. 

 Under this definition the wheat so often seen in berseem 

 is usually a weed. All weeds are bad, because they 

 decrease the crop in which they are growing; for where a 

 weed is there could a plant grow, and the weed withdraws 

 light, moisture and food from the crop. The weeds may 

 overshadow and kill out many of the crop plants in their 

 young stage, more especially when the crop has been sown 

 so late, or so early as to interfere with its rapid growth or 

 to specially favour the growth of the young weeds. Weeds 

 like dodder and broomrape actually devour the crops on 

 which they live ; other weeds only hinder the full deve- 

 lopment of the crop in which they grow. In a properly 

 sown crop every single weed reduces the crop, and if a 

 few weeds are allowed in one crop their seed is usually 

 sufficient to infest a large area of the succeeding crops. 



