36 Weeds, 



4. The profits of farming zvill be rela- 

 tively much larger zvhere farms arc kept 

 entirely free from noxious zvecds. The 

 correctness of the proposition here made 

 will surely be apparent to the reflective 

 mind, but if proof is wanted, it is easily 

 found. 



Since weeds feed upon identically the 

 same food as useful plants, it follows that, 

 where the former take up a portion of the 

 plant food there will be just that much less 

 for the crops in which the weeds grow. 

 Where weeds are more numerous in a crop 

 than the plants of the crop, much more of 

 plant food is used by the weeds than by the 

 crop, for weeds are more ravenous feeders 

 tban useful plants. Moreover, through the 

 crozvding and sJiadiug by weeds of the crop 

 plants, crops are very much injured, as was 

 stated in a previous chapter. Here, too, 

 the injury will be in proportion to the num- 

 ber and strength of the weeds, and crop- 

 yields will be correspondingly diminished. 

 The view has been advocated that some- 

 times noxious weeds should not be cut down 

 in pastures, for the reason that they encour- 

 age the growth of grasses, inasmuch as 

 they furnish shade to them. This would 



