60 PRACTICAL CORN CULTURE 
of years in succession, the kind of weed, or weeds, that thrive 
best with that particular crop are given an excellent oppor- 
tunity to propagate. 
There is no better way to check the growth of weeds than 
to keep the ground occupied constantly with growing farm 
crops. All observing readers have noticed that bare spots in 
a field become covered with weeds of some kind. 
Many kinds of weeds are kept in check, or are entirely 
destroyed, by growing some crop like corn which requires 
open cultivation. On the other hand, many weeds that thrive 
in open cultivation will be smothered out if the field is put in 
grass or some small grain. Most rotations make it possible to 
have a growing crop on the land all the time. 
Five years ago we rented eighty acres adjoining one of 
our farms. Since the farm was not cross fenced and the 
previous tenants desired to pasture their stalk fields they had 
not sown any part of it in wheat because the stock in running 
over it would ruin it. The rotation for over ten years on 
this farm had been corn three years and oats one year, to 
the exclusion of all other crops. This, together with care- 
less farming, had caused the fields to become badly infested 
with cockleburs. These weeds were so thick that they were 
a continual annoyance to the men and teams while putting 
in the first crop. We put the whole farm in oats the first 
year, then in wheat two years straight. The result was that 
the cockleburs were completely destroyed. In addition to 
this, the milkweeds, which had gotten a bad start, were also 
destroyed. While we have only had this farm five years it 
has been changed by crop rotation and clean culture from one 
of the foulest to one of the cleanest farms in the county. If 
we were to follow this system again we would substitute soy 
beans for most of the oats. One year with another, this is 
