PREFACE 



NATURE is the great farmer. Continually she sows and reaps, 

 making all the forces of the universe her tools and helpers. The 

 sun's rays, wind, rain, frost and snow, insects and birds, animals 

 small and great, even to the humble burrowing worms of the earth, 

 all work mightily for her and a harvest of some kind is absolutely 

 sure. And to the people who must wrest a living from the soil, not 

 only for themselves but for all mankind besides, it must seem that 

 Nature's favorites are the hardy, aggressive, and often useless and 

 harmful plants which they have named weeds. 



Yet, when man interferes with the Great Mother's plans and 

 insists that the crops shall be only such as may benefit and enrich 

 himself, she seems to yield a willing obedience, and under his guid- 

 ance does immensely better work than when uncontrolled. But 

 Dame Nature is an "eye-servant" ; only by the sternest determina- 

 tion and the most unrel axing vigilance can her fellow-worker subdue 

 the earth to his will and fulfill the destiny foreshadowed in that 

 primal blessing, so sadly disguised and misnamed, when the first 

 man was told, " Cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt 

 thou eat of it all the days of thy life ; thorns also and thistles shall 

 it bring forth to thee ; and thou shalt eat of the herb of the field." 

 A stern decree. But the civilization of the peoples of the earth is 

 measured by the forward state of their agriculture ; and agriculture 

 in its simplest terms is the compelling of the soil to yield only such 

 products as shall conduce to the welfare of the people who live upon 

 it. It resolves itself into a contest with nature as to what plants 

 shall be permitted to grow, and the discovery of the easiest, surest, 

 and most economical means of securing a victory in the strife. 



In agriculture, as in every field of labor, modern invention and 

 discovery have greatly multiplied the power and efficiency of each 

 pair of human hands ; but still in this contest with nature and 

 the growing plants, it frequently happens that those hands are 



