THE 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF THE 



CEYLON AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Vol. XXXII. COLOMBO, MAECH 15th, 1909, No. 3. 



Reviews. 



CLEAN WEEDING. 



1. The Annual Report of the Director 

 of Agriculture E. M. S. for 1907. 



2. The Cultivation of Passiflora Foe- 

 tida and Micania Scandens. (Circulars 

 and Agricultural Journal of the K. B. G., 

 Peradeniya, Vol. IV., No. 16. 



We take it that agriculture may be 

 defined, for practical purposes, as the 

 art of making a profit by the cultivation 

 of land, and that it is the proper object 

 of the agriculturist to obtain the largest 

 possible permanent profit off a given 

 area of ground. In other words, agri- 

 culture is the art of making land as valu- 

 able as possible in respect of the crops 

 which it is capable of growing. It is not 

 the planter's function to concern himself 

 with the beauty of tbe landscape either 

 by respecting the natural vegetation or 

 by neglecting to tap natural sources of 

 water power ; for example : as in other 

 forms of business, so in agriculture, the 

 question to be decided in the case of any 

 given proposal is, will it pay ? 



Just as much as in any other agricul- 

 tural operation, the question of weeding, 

 or of weeding in a particular way, must 

 be decided from this point of view. The 

 question before us then is, does clean 

 weeding pay ? And we think the answer 

 is obvious that this depends upon the 

 circumstances of the particular case. 

 We are told on all hands that clean weed- 



ing is cheap weeding, and many people 

 seem to think that the whole philosophy 

 of weeding is summed up in this phrase. 

 But we are not prepared to agree that 

 even this idea might not be better ex- 

 pressed. We are not sure that another 

 expression is not preferable— if you go in 

 for clean weeding at all, do it thoroughly. 

 If it is decided in any particular case 

 that clean weeding is the best policy, 

 then the more thoroughly it is carried 

 out the cheaper it will be in the long run. 



Let us trace the origin of the idea of 

 clean weeding. It is clearly derived 

 from the methods of temperate agri- 

 culture, and is particularly applicable 

 to the case of annual crops. Where any 

 kind of an annual crop is grown it un- 

 questionably pays to keep the land clean. 

 If weeds are allowed to seed or spread in 

 any quantity, trouble rapidly multiplies 

 itself. We might almost say that agri- 

 culture in the strictest sense, that is to 

 say field cultivation, consists in the first 

 instance in the extermination of weeds. 

 We think it may be taken as generally 

 agreed that, in the case of short-lived 

 crops, weeding cannot be carried out too 

 thoroughly. 



When one comes to consider the 

 question of crops which are to occupy 

 the ground permanently, or for a con- 

 siderable number of years, the question 

 of what will pay best is not so immedi 

 ately obvious. We require to proceed 

 somewhat cautiously when we find that 

 men of considerable experience hold 



