CROPS AND SOIL IMPROVEMENT 



to settle so that moisture can be held. It is bad 

 practice to continue deep harrowing until the 

 seeding time of any small grain or grass planted 

 in a dry part of the year. Firmness is wanted 

 in the soil. 



The Weed Seed. The seeds of tilled crops 

 are planted in ground containing much weed 

 seed, and no harm may result. The cultivation 

 needed to keep the soil loose, or to prevent 

 evaporation, destroys the weeds. Grass, clover, 

 alfalfa, and like seeds are put into the ground to 

 occupy it to the exclusion of other plants for 

 several years, as a rule, and no tillage can be 

 given. The rule is to sow such seeds after tilled 

 crops have been grown, and some weed seed has 

 been destroyed, but there is evidence on every 

 hand that the weed seed remains in abundance. 

 Summer preparation for grass gives opportunity 

 to destroy a great part of the seeds in the surface 

 of the ground, and it is only when they are near 

 the surface that the seeds of most weeds will 

 germinate. Deep harrowings, continued up to 

 time of planting, not only rob land of water, but 

 they bring to the surface new lots of seed that 

 had been safely buried, and become a part of the 

 actual seeding when the grass, clover, or alfalfa is 



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