The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-09-05
The Repression OF Weeds.

There is an old and trite saying to the
effect that those who would free them
selves from any burden must them
selves do the work. There is, also, an
old fable extant of man who. calling
on the gods for help to extricate his
cart from mud hole, was advised to
put his own shoulder to the wheel.
Perhaps there is no other class of per-
sons to whom these examples apply
more closely and pertinently than
farmers, for they certainly bear heavy
burdens grlevous to be borne in the
shape OF weeds and predaceous insects,
OF which they complain with justified
bitterness and yet do not move finger
to help themselves. Just now, as
one passes along thu roads and sees the
luxuliant crops of wild carrots, rag
weed and thistles fast ripening their
seeds, both on the roadsides and in the
fields, and the low meadows and corn
fields filling up with smartweed, beg
CARS ticks, and a hundred various
kinds whose names would not be recog-
nized, he can not fail to remark the
carelessness and the reckless unwisdom
of the farmers who permit their crops
to be lessened and their time wasted BY
the overwhelming growth of these
most pestiferous weeds, which, year
after year, ripen and shed their seeds.
to stock the ground for a century to
come.
Few farmers take pains to learn
what weeds cost them, both in loss of
time and in loss of crop. We have
NIX - Il.
ing the past few years by carefully
keeping plots Of ground in various sue
cessive crops for several years, and
noting the expense of thorough weed
ing in excess OF the usual cultivation in
the rows and tho difference between
the crops on either plot, and as well
one plot kept without any crop, but
left to the weeds wholly, these, how
ever, being killed by cultivation when
only half grown, SO that the persistence
OF the plants from the stock of seed in
the ground could be noted. The results
are curious. The difference of weld Of
corn, carrots, potatoes and beets,
grown with and without hand wedding.
is nearly one-half more in favor of the
hand-weeded and hoed but the extra
cost of the wedding is more than the
value of the extra crop gained. On the
plot left fallow but kept cultivated the
result depends very much upon the sea-
son, as in very dry weather the growth
is very light, while in wet season, as
the present, the growth of weeds after
seven years constant wedding is more
abundant than at first, and vet no weed
has ever been permitted to ripen a
seed or ever bloom. During these seven
| years the persistence of the weeds is re-
markable. The first weeds which ap-
pear are chickweed, wild radish, must
ard and the common lambs garter;
the next are purslane, crab-grass
| (PaDicuns sG1gatSaaale), chiefly, with
smartweed; then come ragweed, and q
grass known as Eragrostss pitosa, recog-
| nized by its lead-colored spikelets, is
the last of all. There are seyersl
others, as wild carrot, beggar's ticks
and the common spreading annual
grasses which are SO abundant every
where, not to forget the ever present
| white clover. In a wet season a new
| growth of these weeds spring up within
| few days after the ground has been
plowed and raked free from alb the
former growth, and after seven years
there is no apparent dlminution in the
| supply. On the roadside, where wild
carrots and ragweed are abundant, the
| yearly mowings of these weeds do not
diminish the stock, which is more or
less abundant as the season is favorable
or otherwise.
1t seems as though the old proverb,
''One years seeding makes nine years
wedding hardly goes far enough, but
then how many years seeding, year
after year, have there beenp
In the struggle for existence farmers
are meeting with excessive competition.
just now it is a question whether or not
the American farmer, with all his adj
| vantages, can compete with the
wretched, half barbarous East Indian
ryot or will be forced to go to the wall
! before his competitor, who goes almost
naked and lives upon rice and pulse,
and whose wife and children and him
| SELF too, are slaves in all but name, aud
who can, therefore, grow wheat for
twenty cents a bushel. Were it not
| that, while we have railroads and every
civilized aid, the East Indian has norro
of these, our wheat would sell in the
world $ markets for fifty or sixty cents
a bushel, because of the excessive com
petitions: and the American farmer
would have-we were about tc write, to
starve; but he would avoid that no
doubt. by turning his attention to the
removal OF all his burdens, of which
weeds are the chief, adding to his labor
and reducing his crops. When India
is provided with railroads and its wheat
and corn fix the price of these products
here, the American farmer will have to
lind way to get rid of his abundant
and costly weeds, and it might be well
to begin learning how to do it soon. -
Henry stepqrt, u a. r Times