St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1896-02-15

FARMER AND PLANTER.
ABOUT WEEDS.
ons ~ sAs Most Persistent Depssaassss
tAe FaRDer Has - CeateaA With.
There aro NO thieves that steal 70
quietly. and yet 80 ehectually from the
farmer - the weeds and thistles,
which he sometimes eultivates In his
fields or allows to grow In his pastures
and fence rows. He counts these NO
part Of his seeding, and hence he h apt
to neglect them. except 20 far - they
interfere with the growing crops In
cultivating his corn one Of his troubles
often Il to keep down the weeds, for
these in good ground that has been
well matured and plowed, are apt to
grow in the carly part Of the season
faster than the corn. They often have
their roots started before the corn il
planted. and unless they are nipped
In the bud they soon become
trouhlesome-but II allowed .
fair chance Il soon becomes
. race between them and the corn
which ahsll have the choice show OF
the soil food. The farmers care, Or
his pride, mostly, leads him to destroy
the weeds and assist the corn; but this
he does under Q continual protest, -
IL the weeds had NO righ tot possession;
but the truth II, he has given them m
equal right with tho corn, and often .
pre-emption right. They have been In
the field al winter, and this by the aid
and good win Of the farmer. This has
been done by allowing them to grow
either In this or some other adjacent
field, or along the fences ON his farm
during the last year, until they pro-
duced and ripened seed, and in their
own legitimate way scattered them for
this years crop, and they arc but using
their natural power Of self-protectaon-
That the farmer has largely tho con-
troll over these thieves Of the richcs Of
his soil can not better be illustrated
than BY the different modes Of dealing
with them by two farmes, which we
witnessed this summer In their efforts
to destroy them The first We shall
CAL Mr.. A, and his mode Of treating
then can be understood when VIC say
that o We rode with him around his
fal N in early harvest, and before the
weeds and thistles had ripened, We
mel ON the road two boys with heavy
hoss, cutting down Close to the
---N m g. ~~~~~1 -~n1~ amd
dig ging mp all that were biennial
or perennial, and piling them in
in heaps to dry and be burned Com
ing On = little further We were &C
coSted by two other boys Ut work in I
| 6eid with the information that thers
were ''lots Of them, but they were cut
ting them clean," We found upon in
quiring that this farmer was making
raid upon the invaders before they
co lid get in their work for the mex,
yeAr-and we have no doubt Of tho sue
ce.s Of his plan. The other farmer
Nh. B, we passed when we were riding
al<ne through tho country In the lat
tc, part Of September, when the weedl
had made their full growth undis
turbed, and had tho seeds al ripened
and dry.
M. b w. aeelnsvatly~ aryi19sec n
M pastme hnd, Into wh3 - had
turned his ahesR fro0 16lea and
burs ana eA nseele.. g -
Eol1>fof iRYnnl 1E795 5ssF. Ne
was axms1 wifA N old seytAe and .
hoe, or old n. When he frat attract
ed our attention he was beating with
heavy strokes at . mammoth thistle,
dry and hard with all the heads ripe,
and ready to send the seeds flying, and
at each stroke hundreds Of seeds took
TO their wings and filled the air. The
wind, being astir, sent them in all di-
rections, even to the public road where
we were passing. We watched him for
awhile with surprise and pity, for he
was NO doubt honestly trying to get
rid Of the thistlcs and other noxioua
weeds In the pasture. Next year he
win surely reap, or, perhaps. / should
say raise, what he has sown, not only
in his pasture field, but over his whole
farm, and he win blame the weeds fog
growing after he has sown them.
There are some weeds which are espe-
cially fond Of wheat fields, and which
do mot flourish well until after the
wheat II cut. Tho ragweed II one o1
these, which In rich ground starts mp
after harvest with . vigorous growth
and soon completely overshadows the
young clover which may have . good
set. For . few weeks this weed may
BE- protection, but It soon becomes .