red clover may be replaced by six pounds of red clover and two of alsike.) 

 If a portion of the arable land must be used for pasture, then the land might 

 be allowed to remain under grass or hay for two years instead of one year, 

 the second being used for pasture, thus extending the three-year into a four- 

 year rotation. The pasture land in the four-year rotation, or the hay land 

 in the three-year rotation, should be broken up early in August and culti- 

 vated at intervals to destroy the successive growths of weeds as they appear. 

 The land should be again ploughed or preferably ridged in the fall. These 

 rotations may be expected to give good results anywhere in Canada east of 

 Manitoba." 



SEEDING DOWN. 



The prevention of seed production by weeds is of the greatest import- 

 ance when cleaning land for a crop. A useful way of choking out many 

 perennial weeds and also of holding in check many annuals, is to seed down 

 to grass or clover. This does not kill the seeds of all the different kinds of 

 weeds which may be in the soil ; but it prevents many weed seeds from being 

 produced upon land which for one reason or another cannot be carefully 

 worked. When the sod is broken up again, the seeds of some kinds will 

 germinate and the plants become noticeable. In the same way that weeds 

 crowd out crops and reduce the yield, so may weeds themselves be choked 

 out by more vigorous plants which will prevent them from getting light 

 and air, and thus weaklings are produced which bear only a few seeds in- 

 stead of strong and vigorous plants which would produce perhaps many 

 thousands, or even hundreds of thousands. Seeding down is always a wise 

 practice on land which is not being used for some special crop, and is 

 Nature's own plan for keeping up the fertility of the soil and preventing an 

 undue preponderance of any one kind of plant. 



WEEDEES AND HARROWS. 



For the destruction of the seedlings of all kinds of weeds upon light 

 land comparatively free of roots and stones, but which has been sown to 

 grain crops for several years in succession, I know of nothing so effective 

 as the working of the surface of fields of growing grain after the plants are 

 three inches high, with the implements called Weeders, which deserve to be 

 in much more general use than they are. In lieu of these, light harrows 

 with sloped teeth may be used to advantage. The field should be dragged 

 in the same direction as the drills. This work of course should only be done 

 when the land is in the proper condition for harrowing. If fields are har- 

 rowed before the grain is three inches high, some of the plants are apt to 

 be covered up too deeply ; but after that stage of growth they are very much 

 benefited by' the operation, which not only kills all of the small weak seed- 

 lings of weeds which have germinated near the surface of the soil, without 

 dragging out or in any way injuring the grain plants, but at the same time 

 breaks up the surface of the soil. This benefits the crop so treated in 

 exactly the same way as crops of corn or potatoes are helped by harrowing, 

 as it forms on the surface a mulch of dry dust which holds in moisture. A 

 single harrowing is generally sufficient; but, if necessary, the operation 

 may be repeated two or three times and until the plants are six inches high. 

 For such persistent annual weeds as Stinkweed, the various kinds of Mustard 

 and Lamb's-quarters, the use of weeders or harrows as above recommended, 

 is undoubtedly the most economical and in every way the best method of 

 control. 



12 



