The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1885-02-26
WEEDS.
A Cheerful View Which Introduces the
Oldest Inhabitant,

WEEDS.
A Cheerful View Which Introduces the
oldest Inhabitant.
Tillers of the soil generally look upon
interfering, indigenous, spontaneous
vegetation as an unmitigated curse. ls
this severe judgment just? Was Eden
free from weeds: Did weeds first grow
after the fall? If among the original
generations was .'every plant of the
field" and every herb of the field" and
''every herb bearing seed. which is upon
the face of all the earth," is it not fair to
infer that the weeds were all then created
no less than the grains, the grasses, the
fruits, and the cultivated vegetables of
to-day? Can we surely say that Adams
obligation to dress and keep the first
garden involved no necessary, hard
labor? Was he a gentleman gardener,
with nothing to do but ''loaf and invite
his soul?" Are o opposite differences
admissible and legitimate:
Again, after the fall, was mans
sweat spoken of as a prophecy,
declaration, blessing. or cursee Is any
ones theology orthodox who believes
that idleness is a blessing, and that in
dustry, labor and the controlling neces-
stiles for industry and labor are curses?
Does it make any practical difference
whether the ground was blessed or
CURSED, when the benevolent reason
follows. For thy sake? When Adam
was told to dress and keep the garden.
was it not in principle very much as we
are told by necessity and custom to dress
and keep u land, according to our
best knowledge. taste and abilityP Is
it not some consolation to toiling tillers
to believe that weeds grew in Eden. and
that 1.-The grand old gardener and his
wife" before they lost their situation
were workers instead of idlerse
All the blessings of weeds it is proba-
BILE no me nov knows. But some that
seem most important will be considered.
First, they are Natures annual manure
makers. Biologists say that all soils
were originally solid rock, which, dur
ing long periods, by many agencies, as
heat, frost, chemical changes, and
finally by vegetable growths, make a
fine. rich soil fit for garden or farm.
Farmers have used the larger portions
of American TILED fields less than 200
years. For how many previous IN
turtles has the good Lord raised annual,
biennial, t%riennial, yes, centennial vege-
tation, to enrich our soils and Il
pockets to-day! Even when we had re-
moved the longest-lived and largest
weeds called pines, hemlocks, naples,
oaks, etc., then fire-weeds, thistles,
docks, s%orrels, p~lantains and other vege-
iables sprang into existence in their
places.
While we should try to sow only clean
seed and to raise only clean grass and
grain, yet the worst so-called weeds are
lot without their uses and benefits.
1t has been proved by experiments that
80 worth of nitrates are annually
washed away through an acre of bare
fallow. but only S1.50 worth on an acre
covered with crops. In the light of this
single fact, which has been only re-
Gently proved, is it not a greater curse
to have an acre of clean soil waste $6. so
worth of n~itrates in a single year than
t o have the good Lord quickly cover
the bare soil with protecting and enrich
ing vegetation, even if that vegetation
be in part composed of the most noxious
weeds?
1t is not ten years since French chem
lists discovered that notification in the
soil is due to a vegetable germ which
grows most rapidly when the soil is at
human blood heat and moderately
moist. This condition is found in sum-
mer, when our fields are shaded with
growing crops. But when the farmer
unwisely makes a bare summer fallow,
or neglects to cover his field with grass
or grain, Nature or Providence kindly
tries to remedy his neglect by protect
ing the bare. ~unoccupied soil with a
crop of so-called weeds. Nature alb
hors a 1t occupies every place
and everything, and is constantly at
work.
In the second place, weeds enforce
more thorough tillage. If men are
naturally INDECENT and thoughless, if
they will not put on the yoke of con-
tinuous labor unless driven by wants or
rewarded by gains, how well would
some fields be titled il weeds did not
make tillage a necessityp A farmer
potatoes only to kill the weeds, when at
the same time he pulverizes, aerates
and n~itrifies the soil, enriching it and
guarding it against drouth. In the
last century Il celebrated Englishman,
Jethro Tull, said: ''Tillage is the only
needed manure" Of course this is an
extreme statement; but it helps to prove
some benefits of weeds when they COM
pei thorough tillage for crops.
Thirdly, weeds are a protecting and
e~nriching mulch. This has already been
referred to incidentally; therefore with
out discussing the processes of mulch
improvement, I win only quote a few
words from .Hortulanus" in a late
Tribune: Il have become so convinced
of the ~all-importance of having a car
b%onaceous surface mulch to the soil, as
a SUR means of securing good growth
of plants, that, instead of raking off
everything in the garden and throwing
it away or burning it for the sake of
neatness, 1 collect and strew on the
surface all sorts of litter hat 1 can find
hair, rags. paper, leaves, straw and
even sticks"
Many years ago Horace Greeley wisely
said that if some kind or kinds of weeds
could only find a home in the barren
wastes of the then, so-called, Great
American Desert, we might hope for
gradual ~amelioration and ultimately
tillable fields. The foolishest seeker for
a farm would be he who tries to find
where weeds never grow. The wise
prospector will go where the weeds
grow o have grown rankest, deepest