160 SOILS 



land. Weed seeds are mostly in the first inch or 

 two of soil; a very shallow cultivation will expose 

 the sprouting seeds and young weeds to the merci- 

 less sun. Many of the finer-seeded kinds are 

 buried so deeply by a deep-working cultivator that 

 they never come up again, especially if a coulter 

 cultivator is used. It is easy to kill weeds in this 

 way, but it is difficult to kill them after they are so 

 large that cultivator teeth do not uproot them, and 

 cultivating must be supplemented by hoeing and 

 hand-pulling. 



There is no better illustration of the old adage 

 "a stitch in time saves nine" than in the killing of 

 weeds. It pays to be forehanded in cultivating 

 more than any other work on the farm. The time 

 to start the cultivator is when the ground is covered 

 with tiny weeds, just appearing above the surface, 

 whether it has been six days or sixteen days since 

 the last tillage. A delay of three or four days, or 

 until the young weeds get their roots established 

 two or three inches deep, means that many of them 

 will not be uprooted by the cultivator. That is 

 the beginning of a foul field. The profit in growing 

 ordinary farm crops depends largely upon the 

 farmer's ability to do as much of the work as pos- 

 sible with horse labour, which is cheap, and as 

 little as possible with manual labour, which is 

 dear. Many farmers have demonstrated that it is 

 easier and cheaper to kill weeds with the culti- 

 vator than to let many of them grow large and 

 then be obliged to hoe and pull them. More culti- 

 vations are necessary, but less hoeings. 



When Weeds Get a Start. Weeds are most apt 

 to get a start during the interval between the time 

 that the crop is planted and when it is up. The 

 season may be cold and backward, and ten days 



