THE 



GARDEN YARD ^ 



tion of weak seed that would not sprout would 

 seriously affect your crop. Besides, where you 

 sow thickly, you can afford to weed out all but 

 the best and stockiest, and you are thus doing 

 something to improve the strain. 



Keep your soil busy all the time. Dr. Watts 

 said, " Satan finds some mischief stiU, for idle 

 hands to do," and that might be paraphrased 

 to read that " Nature has great store of weeds in 

 idle lands to grow." " Weeds are the farmer's 

 best friend, they force him to cultivate." But 

 that friendship is only true where it has that 

 effect. The farmer who lets the weeds grow 

 either in the garden rows or in the walks and 

 hedges, is going to find them his worst enemy. 

 They poison and suffocate his crop, and are also 

 regular incubators of insects and diseases. The 

 best way to fight them is to starve them out 

 with paying crops. Therefore, as soon as one crop 

 begins to ripen, plant another, and then another, 

 and so on. To grow but one crop is risky, un- 

 less you are specializing and have prepared the 

 best possible conditions for that one crop. For 

 a special market this is very profitable. But 

 usually companion-cropping is best. That gives 

 two crops in the ground at the same time, one 

 maturing before the other needs the space. 

 Thus late celery may be planted between the 



