The Application of 

 Fertilizers 



Almost as much depends upon the proper use of fertiUzers 

 as upon their composition. We must remember that chemi- 

 cally prepared fertilizers are prepared plant foods; that for 

 best results they should be applied to a properly prepared seed 

 bed or field. To feed highly concentrated foods to an old, 

 winded horse or a sickly cow exposed to the cold and wet, is 

 usually money and labor thrown away; so it is money and 

 labor poorly expended to buy commercial manures and apply 

 them to sour, wet, half-baked land, or to land half plowed and 

 poorly prepared. 



Again, it is money poorly expended to apply chemical 

 manures to land where poor seed is used, or where, after the 

 crop has come up, it is neglected. Weeds, as well as cultivated 

 crops, thrive on fertilizers. The only merit which weeds possess 

 (if they possess any merit at all) is that they sometimes do for 

 the farmer what he has neglected to do for himself. If he 

 neglects to cultivate and protect the original crop which it is 

 good for him and the soil to grow, provided it is properly grown, 

 weeds step in and cover the ground, protecting it and, when 

 plowed • in, supply a certain amount of plant food and humus 

 that is good for the soil. 



Nature abhors a bare spot, so she sets to work to cover 

 up bare spots with some sort of growth, even if it be only nox- 

 ious weeds. In this sense they are a sort of catch or "cover" 

 crop, occupying the land until a better crop takes their place. 

 If there is any comfort in this view of the weed question, the 

 shiftless farmer is welcome to it; but we do not recommend 

 fertilizers to grow weeds even as catch or cover crops. Fer- 

 tilizers are too costly for that purpose. Dirt is described as 

 matter out of place ; a weed is a growth which is out of place. 

 Do not tolerate it anywhere, and certainly not on land which has 

 been enriched with chemical manures for which one has paid 

 good money. (See Note, p. 34.) 



33 



Weeds 

 Thrive on 

 Fertilizers 



Value of 

 Weeds 



