THE DEMONSTRATION WORK 



stump farmer pays about $4.00 an acre every year for the 

 privilege of having stumps in his fields. In addition, there 

 are generally a few feet of untilled soil around every field 

 stump which produce foul weeds and grasses to seed the 

 land. 



What has been charged against stumps applies with still 

 more force to trees, shrubs and brush patches in the field; 

 dig, burn, destroy; they are natural enemies of the farmer. 

 Straighten out the sides of the field, square up the corners 

 and avoid the short rows as much as possible ; they increase 

 the work of tillage. 



Farmers have become so accustomed to fighting weeds, 

 and grasses in the cultivated fields that they regard it as a 

 matter of necessity. They think the land is full of foul weeds 

 and, of course, they will germinate when it rains. 



When the virgin soils are first placed in cultivation they 

 are comparatively free from weeds and grass and that they 

 become foul is due to faulty management on the part of the 

 farmers. It is not difficult to discover the real causes. First, 

 careless cultivation, which allows weeds and grass to mature 

 seed in the cultivated fields. Second, little attention is paid 

 to the highways, the brush patches, the fence corners and the 

 pastures, and they are almost universally breeding grounds 

 for foul weeds and grass. It has been charged that the 

 Southern farmer is careless. It may be true in some things, 

 but in one thing too many of them stand first among the 

 farmers of the world — they never fail to raise a crop of weed 

 and grass seed large enough to seed their own fields and 

 their neighbors. 



The cost of this universal weed and grass seeding 

 amounts annually to more than $5 for each acre in corn, and 

 $10 for each acre in cotton. In 1909 in the states of Ala- 



[i88] 



