194 FARM MANAGEMENT 



or pasture down the crop after it is grown. Hay is usually 

 too valuable a material to use as manure. 



Weeds often help to keep up the supply of organic 

 matter. Whenever there is any time that land is idle 

 between crops, the weeds fill in the gap. Sometimes the 

 weeds do much damage and sometimes they do no harm, 

 but always they help to keep up the humus supply. 



In some of the older parts of the country, there are 

 large areas of hill lands that never were very productive, 

 and that are always on the boundary line where it is a 

 question whether they will pay for farming. The out- 

 lying hills in the region of the Appalachian and other 

 mountains of the Eastern States are mostly of this nature. 

 The valleys are usually fertile. Much of this hill land is 

 either little used, or is not cropped at all. A common 

 practice on such land is to mow it for hay as long as it 

 pays for cutting, then let it grow up to goldenrod, daisies, 

 and other weeds, until it is rich enough to give a small 

 yield of potatoes, buckwheat, oats, or some other crop. 

 One or two crops are grown, and it is again allowed to go 

 back to hay and then to weeds. At first thought, it seems 

 very wasteful to let land grow nothing but weeds, but this 

 land is not idle when it is growing goldenrod. It is 

 taking nature's slow way of renewing the organic matter 

 and nitrogen. If land is worth only $10 per acre, the cost 

 of letting it alone while it grows weeds is only about 60 

 cents per acre per year. Four years of such treatment 

 at compound interest can be had at a cost of less than 

 $3 per acre. There are few other ways of accomplishing so 

 much at so small cost. 



In some cases, other methods of management may pay 

 better, but in many cases, the weeds furnish the cheapest 

 source of organic matter. These farmers have not the 



