The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1881-07-29
Weeds.

VCCUos
A weed is a plant out of its proper
place. A stool of wheat or a potato
growing in a corn-feld is as ruthlessly
de -troyed as thistle, and is as much q
weed in every respect. But how strange
it is that farmers who will agree per-
fectly in this view as regards the wheat
or the potato, will not only permit
pumpkins and beans to grow with their
corn, bat actually deceive themselves
into the belief that they are gaining an
advantage over s. Dame Nature on the
sly. '.The stars keep not their motion
in one sphere" nor can two masses OF
matter occupy the same place, and
neither can two plants grow together
without dividing the fertility of the soil
between them. And SO plant, what
ever it may be, that is out of place is
weed, and purloins from the crop
certain quantity of its nutriment for ev-
cry leaf that it produces. Weeds
abound everywhere. They are SO COM
mon that a man too often believes them
to be q necessary evil and one that he
fights against in vain. There are per-
sons who assume that weeds are sort
of human birthright, one of the troubles
that man is born 10, and that they must
be accepted as an inevitable inheritance
left us by our first parent, Adam, and
all through his fall from grace. Taking
this view of it, they come to think thatlt
is useless to expect and vain to try to
get the better of them, and look for
ward to the time when the soil will be
free of them. But this is an unreasona-
BILE view to take of it, even in this light,
for if weeds come upon us as an inherit
ed punishment for wrong doing there is
no reason why we ought not to take our
share of it. "cash down." as it were,
pay up, and have done with it, instead
of meeting it in annual installments.
We know there is very prevalent
idea that it is hopeless to expect to clear
a farm or a garden of weeds, or even to
approach so near to it that the labor
will be lightened to any considerable ex-
tent. But we have good reason to be
sure of the contrary. Five years. con-
slant work in o garden of over two
acres, which was unusually weedy at the
beginning of that period, has so reduced
the weeds that the crops have to be Gull
tivated for the sake of keeping the soil
loose and mellow, and not that the weeds
may be kept down. On the farm the
same result has been reached, to less
extent, however, but there are no new
weeds to be killed in some of the fields,
because every year no weed goes to
seed and the stock is diminishing. So
that the cheerful hope may be held out
that if a few years. work is devoted to
this object one may bring his land to
such a condition of cleanliness that it
may seem to justify the remark of a
hired man who was ordered to cultivate
a field of corn. "What that corn?
why, there's not a weed in it. That
don't want hoeing."
And this leads US to remark that weeds,
like all other things, good or bad, have
their uses. They are not altogether bad |;
for, in the first place, if they did not ex-
list as a constant threat to the farmer
some fields and some crops would suffer
for want of working the soil. We do
not properly realize the fact that ''til.
lage is manure;" that to work the sol
is to draw upon generous nature for a
bountiful supply of fertility, and tina,
the more the soil is turned and mellowed
and exposed to the air and the warmth
of the sun and the "sweet influences
of the stars, by which the rich dews are
brought to refresh and feed the sol
during the cool hours of the star lii
night. when no clouds interfere to pre-.
vent the radiation of heat from the soil
upon which the copious deposit of dew
depends, the more the crops grow and
thrive; and, also, when the farmer, see
ing his corn-fields green with grass and
the various weeds which so quickly
spring up and cover the ground, i.
forced to 90 with harrow or cultivation
and hoe and kill these weeds, he is Civ
ing vitality to the soil and life and health
to his crops.
But there is another useful purpos'
which weeds serve, and this is to furnish
a large amount of manurial matter t.
the soil. When an oat-stubble, for in
stance, is left for few weeks after tn
harvest and before the pillow is put in t.
turn the soil for the rye or wheat, whic
follows this crop in our usual rotation
the surface is quickly covered with rag
weed, smartweed, and various Othe
kinds of plants. We well remember
thrifty farmer of Eastern Pennsylvani
once congratulating himself upon tn
luxuriant ragweed which covered hi
oat-stubble as being worth for gree
manure as much as a crop of clover, an
yet costing him nothing. In this wa
the farmer gains more than he woul
suspect, for the weeds gather from til
atmosphere and the soil large amour
of fertilizing matter which would othel
wise be lost or, at least, would not hay
been made available. If one shoul
doubt that this gain is made from weed
let him compare the rich virgin soil {
the Western prairie, which for yea
has been covered with a thick growth (
weeds, wild plants, and with flowers {
every hue; the brilliant golden rods, tt
starryasters, the graceful spireas, tt
gorgeous helianthus, the ordOrous chez
opodiums, the amaranths, and the tho
sand and one common weeds whie
there reach to surprising growth
the favorable soil, and which carpet tt
earth with dense mat of green ar
gold interviewer with threads of bl,
and purple, red and white. F.