CHAPTER XXIII. 



WEEDS AND HOW TO MANAGE THEM. 



" A stroke in time saves nine." 



[LOSE cropping with thorough culture as practiced 

 by every good market gardener, and worthy of 

 imitation by every home gardener, gives very 

 Httle chance to weed growth ; and where weed 

 seeds are not carelessly scattered over the land, in 

 manure or by other agencies, soon renders the 

 originally tedious and disagreeable task of weed 

 destruction mere child's play. The weeds grow 

 less with every year of thorough cropping and cultivation. On 

 the other hand, they increase in number, and become more and 

 more troublesome with every year of neglectful culture, and with 

 every year of using manures that are full of foul seeds. Such 

 manure is a bad investment at any time, and for any crop, but 

 almost ruinous to some crops, especially onions and strawberries. 

 Rather than use weedy manures I would prefer to operate 

 exclusively with concentrated fertilizers, supplemented by clover 

 manuring, thus avoiding all this serious risk. The old and 

 somewhat stale saying, " One year of seeding makes nine years 

 of weeding," is in no way an exaggeration of the truth. 



Weed destruction is not the sole, nor even the principal 

 object of cultivation ; but weed growth may often be considered 

 almost a blessing to the more shiftless manager as it reminds him 

 of the necessity to stir the surface, and imperatively demands, at 

 the peril of the whole crop, that this be done. 



Where cultivation is given as it should be, namely, as a mere 

 stimulant, not a destroyer of plant growth, and for the purpose of 

 making the surface soil answer for a mulch, and admitting air 

 freely to the roots of plants, this constant stirring will not allow 

 any weed seeds to do more than just germinate and die. To 

 kill all weeds at this early stage, really before any signs of them 

 can be detected above ground except perhaps to an unsually 

 sharp eye and close observer, is the " one stitch in time that saves 

 nine." 



Some weeds I refuse to regard as a blessing under any cir- 

 cumstances. One of them is the Canada thistle. This curse of 

 the farmer of which it is next to impossible for him to rid his 

 fields and farm crops, after a neighborhood has once become 



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