SHEEP AS IMPROVERS OF CROP YIELDS 19 



changing the succession in the crops, it is easily possible to 

 cripple all kinds of weeds in their growth, by growing those 

 crops which will best effect the end sought in each in- 

 stance. Some crops grow more quickly than others, and 

 in doing so make grazing possible at a time that will do 

 most harm to the weeds. Some crowd weeds more than 

 others, and some furnish the opportunity for attacking 

 weeds to a greater extent than others in the preparation 

 of soil called for and also in the time when such prepara- 

 tion should be given. When these influences are given 

 due attention, the destroying process will be proportion- 

 ately hastened. 



The method by which these crops are grown has an 

 important bearing on the destruction of weed life. Grow- 

 ing crops that call for harrowing after the planting season 

 will result in destroying more weeds than growing crops 

 that do not call for such treatment, and growing those 

 that call for both harrowing and cultivating will prove 

 even more effective in the removal of weeds. Careful 

 cultivation given to forage crops while they are grow- 

 ing will be more effective in destroying perennial weeds 

 than other forms of weed life. 



Second, the weeds that grow are transformed into mut- 

 ton during the cleaning process. Other classes of live stock 

 are much prone to reject weeds, and consequently when the 

 effort is made to destroy them they are seldom turned to any 

 good use. It may not be possible to make high-class mutton 

 from weeds alone, but experience has abundantly proved that 

 excellent mutton can be made from forage crops grown as 

 outlined and the weeds that grow along with them. 



Third, the land is fertilized while thus being grazed. 

 This does not mean that the content of its fertility in the soil 

 and subsoil is increased, but that the fertility in the subsoil, 

 or at least a part of it, is transformed from inert into avail- 

 able forms, and is brought from the subsoil and incorporated 

 in the surface soil, in which it is readily accessible to the 

 roots of the crops that may be sown. The accumulation of 



