Fortunes for Farmers 



sary condition. Natural they may be, but neces- 

 sary they are not. Their cost is incalculable. There 

 is the labour of weeding, the indirect loss of fal- 

 lowing, the nourishment they steal from rightful 

 crops, the sometimes choking and always weaken- 

 ing of the crop (peas, for instance), and the ex- 

 pense of the seedsmen machining farm seeds. This 

 is but a tithe. They take a rent from the land, and 

 should be abolished. 



The object in offering these suggestions is to 

 stimulate thoughtful agriculturists. They are of 

 the sketchiest nature, and practical details are left 

 to valuers, botanists, experts, farmers' unions, to 

 anyone, in short, who knows land intimately. There 

 is no reason why a campaign against weeds, pro- 

 perly conducted, should not be successful; even 

 in a generation the primeval curse would be greatly 

 abated. 



Weeds come chiefly from four sources : (i) They 

 already exist in the ground; (2) they are sown with 

 seed; (3) they come from neighbouring farms; and, 

 (4) they ambush in dykes and hedges. There are 

 clean farms already, practically weedless, the fruit 

 of ceaseless energy. I have seen them with admira- 

 tion, and it is certainly possible to suppress (if not 

 eradicate) one's native weeds, but the other causes 

 are ever present, and one cannot relax, nor can 

 one's efforts ever be completely successful. 



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