FODDER IN INDIA. 1 5 



a jungle perhaps, which has been running itself for years, 

 unfortunately such things do happen. All the same this is 

 no excuse for you to do likewise, it's easier to run the show 

 like that and you may say " what's the good," but if your 

 heart is in your farm you can't do it. 



There are innumerable kinds of weeds, with as many 

 names which need not be mentioned. For our purpose all are 

 bad, some worse than others, as they grow to a great size 

 and spread at an alarming rate ; root them all out all the 

 year round, the best time is perhaps when the ground is soft 

 after rain, summer, and winter, especially after the first mon- 

 soon showers when the grass crop is starting to -grow in 

 earnest. Weeds are an abomination ; they choke, oust, and 

 kill off good grass and ruin your crop quality. One rupee 

 per day per acre occasionally spent will save you five or six 

 rupees or more if once the weeds get out of hand. The 

 ploughing of grass lands as written of in a previous chapter 

 will greatly help to keep down weeds, otherwise the weeding 

 must be done by hand pulling and with the khurpa. For 

 ■weeding crops hand pulling, the harrow, and the cultivator. 

 It may be borne in mind with advantage that weeds, which 

 are mostly gross feeders and quick growers do an immense 

 amount of damage in a bad monsoon year by drawing 

 moisture from the soil and giving it off through their leaves — 

 the quantity of moisture lost in this way is very 

 considerable. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Arboriculture is worthy of interest and some little con- 

 sideration in agriculture, but does not 



" Arboriculture. 



concern the grass farmer in India to any 

 great extent, and the trees are rarely the property of the 

 farm, so planting and rearing to any appreciable extent is 

 usually not worth while. But trees along your farm roads, 

 on boundary lines, around Stables, bullock lines, and other 



