198 The Principles of Vegetable -Gardening 



4. Practice frequent tillage with light surf ace- work- 

 ing tools, throughout the season. This is hard on 

 weeds and does the crop good. 



5. Pull or hoe out stray weeds which escape the 

 wheel tools. 



6. Clean the land as soon as the crop is harvested : 

 and if the land lies open in the fall, till it occasionally. 

 Many persons keep their premises scrupulously clean 

 in the early season but let them run wild in the fall, 

 and thus is the land seeded for the following year. 



7. Use clean seed, particularly of crops which are 

 sown broadcast, and which, therefore, do not admit of 

 tillage. 



8. Do not let the weeds go to seed on the manure 

 piles, in the fence corners, and along the highway. 



9. Avoid coarse and raw stable manure, particularly 

 if it is suspected of harboring bad company. Com- 

 mercial fertilizers may be used for a time on foul land. 



10. Sheep and pigs sometimes can be employed to 

 clean the weeds from foul and fallow land. Land in- 

 fested with Jerusalem artichokes is readily cleaned if 

 hogs are turned in. 



11. Induce your neighbor to keep his land as clean 

 as you keep yours. 



Rank pigweeds and their ilk are a compliment to 

 a man's soil. Land that will not grow weeds will not 

 grow crops, for crops are only those particular kinds 

 of weeds which a man wants to raise. Weeds have 

 taught us the lesson of good tillage. There is no indi- 

 cation that they intend to remit their efforts in our 

 behalf. 



