THE STATE AS FARMER 49 



wonder what some of the intensive farmers 

 would say if they saw weeds eating up the 

 valuable fertilisers upon which they had 

 spent so much money ? The mischief is 

 precisely the same, although it may be ignored 

 upon an ordinary farm : the loss in money 

 is there, even if it be uncounted. 



But the eradication of weeds is essentially 

 a work, not for one farmer, but for all acting 

 together with one impulse and on a concerted 

 scheme. The matter is one closely connected 

 with our meadows as well as with arable 

 land, and might require very drastic measures 

 where the object in view — the preservation 

 of the flavour of milk in a valley or the 

 destruction of some insect pest — is worth 

 an infinite amount of trouble. And in this 

 connection I may remind the reader that 

 weeds are the bases of many injurious insects, 

 diseases, and rusts which sometimes destroy 

 our crops like a pestilence devastates a land. 

 The complete inquiry into such questions 

 as these, and the organising of the campaign 

 against the common foe, is the work of 

 scientific men as wary and wise as we can 

 obtain them. It often happens that some 



