COST OF WEED MANURE. 237 



slides and hand-weeding also. Tiien we are careful not to allow 

 any of the weeds to go to. seed, and towards the close of the 

 season the hands go through the rows with baskets on their 

 arms, and pull all large weeds up and carry them out of the 

 bed. 



But in spite of all that, of course the great mass of our 

 ground devoted to vegetables will run too much to weeds, espe- 

 cially purslane and chickweed. Purslane is the worst weed 

 we have. Neither of these weeds is sufficiently understood. 

 They are of a class that grow and seed at the same time, and 

 they are very apt to deceive people in that way. Chickweed 

 flowers earlier in spring than anything else. As soon as the 

 snow leaves the ground you will find chickweed in bloom, and 

 you never see the weed of any size where,you will not find seed. 

 Some people have an . idea that it cannot be exterminated, 

 simply from the fact that it has that habit of blooming all the 

 time and going to seed all the time. Tiiis has been a very 

 favorable season for chickweed. These weeds, therefore, are to 

 be looked after. And how do some parties look after them ? 

 I once saw the hog-pen of a farmer, who had raised onions for 

 years, ■three feet deep with purslane. I dare say every cord of 

 that manure cost him twenty-five dollars, and more too. That is 

 one of the greatest mistakes a farmer can commit — using weeds 

 for manure. They are the most costly things a man can use. 

 In the first place no man can afford to raise them That idea 

 ought to be knocked out of every farmer's head. If you should 

 take all the weeds you can gather and put them into your hog- 

 pen, and count the time it takes you to get them there, you 

 would find phosphates, at two hundred dollars a ton, cheap 

 compared with them. 



Gathering' Crops. — The -omon crop we begin to pull after the 

 tops have died down. We aim to get the onion crop in as soon 

 as we possibly can in the spring, because it needs all the season. 

 The 10th of June is not very late for the carrot. Tlie onion 

 crop we gather, as I have said, as soon as the tops die down. 

 If it should happen, unfortunately, that the land was not ma- 

 nured enough, so that they still hold their necks up stiff when 

 the seasun threatens frost, then we have to break them down by 

 hand or by rolling a barrel over them. After the tops have 

 gone down and the necks arc fairly dried, pull three rows and 



