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account, be neglected. If the weeds be kept down till the 

 vines cover the ground, they will not make much head- 

 way until the foliage of the vines begins to die and fall off; 

 then they will start up again, and grow with more vigor than 

 before. At this time, use your cultivator again between the 

 rows, and let the children pull out the weeds that shall be 

 found among the vines. Fail not to keep them clear of weeds 



till harvest time. What more disagreeable sight upon a farm, 

 than a potato field all grown over with weeds, so thick that the 

 crop cannot be harvested until the weeds are mown and raked 

 up into piles. And how diiScult and unpleasant is the task to 

 harvest potatoes tliat are entangled in roots of weeds, to which 

 the soil adheres with so much tenacity, that they require con- 

 siderable threshing to shake it off, and liberate the potatoes 

 from them. The expense of harvesting such a crop, would be 

 twice the amount of that which has been cultivated with 

 proper care. But this is but the first verse of the chapter. 

 By reason of such bad husbandry, not half a crop has been 

 matured, and the weeds that have prevented its growth, have 

 appropriated much of the fertilizing matter of the soil, to their 

 own growth, so that a considerable outlay must be incurred to 

 bring it back to its former tilth. Moreover, the noxious weeds 

 have sown their seeds upon the field, and in spring-time, they 

 will come up and cover the ground with the like. Thus it 

 appears, that the bad results of the farmer's neglect in one 

 season does not end there, but continues on through years to 

 come. Who can look upon a field, in which the seeds have, 

 been suffered to grow up so thick as to hide from view all the 

 edible plants that are growing there, and contemplate the 

 results of such neglect, and not be forcibly reminded of the 

 picture of the vineyard of the man void of understanding ? 

 That man is to be pitied, as well as censured, who neglects the 

 culture of his field so much that passers-by, when they behold 

 it, deride his name with taunts and jeers. It is the height of 



