THE 
GARDEN YARD 82 
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 still, 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 
