HARROWING, CULTIVATING 163 



No more of them are being built now than are 

 needed to confine stock, and portable fences are 

 being used more and more. This adds much to 

 the sightliness and convenience of the farm and 

 much, also, to its freedom from weeds. 



The Prevalence of Weeds in Sown Crops. 

 Weeds are most apt to overrun a place when 

 crops are grown that permit of no cultivation. 

 Witness for example, the devastation of the Canada 

 thistle, Russian thistle, devil's paint brush, etc., in 

 the grain fields of the Mississippi Valley. Pro- 

 fessor I. P. Roberts says, "It is believed that the 

 time is not far distant when wheat, oats, barley, 

 and indeed all grains that are now broadcasted or 

 drilled, will receive inter-cultural tillage similar to 

 that now given to maize (corn) , and this will not be 

 by hand, as in some portions of Europe, but by 

 horse-hoe tillage." This time is a long way off 

 in America, where tillable land is abundant and 

 cheap, but undoubtedly the drift is in that direction 

 fewer plants per acre, more tillage, larger yields. 

 When the cereals, now more grievously affected 

 with weeds than hoed crops, are brought under 

 this system of culture, they will be relieved from 

 weeds by the magic that lies in cultivator teeth. 

 Over three centuries ago quaint Thomas Tusser 

 expressed one of the most important facts in the 

 agriculture of his times, and of ours, in the couplet : 



"Good tilth brings seeds, 

 111 tilture, weeds." 



CULTIVATION TO SAVE WATER 



In the humid sections of our country, if the season 

 is fairly wet one does not need to worry much 

 about cultivating to save water early in the season. 



