St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-10-29
FARMER AND PLANTER.
TOO cLEANFARM1N G
4 New Idea Set Forth for the Farmer Il
Pondsr-A Flea In Behalf or
the Weeds.

There seems to be a tendency OF
the part of human nature in genera
to, it they see good thing, pass i
along. and in the passing along of thi.
good thing they are determined to &,
the whole hog or none; IN other words
they go as far as their rope will le
them, and if they only have rop.
enough. they will either hang them
selves or get badly tangled This j,
and has been true. not only of thu
present age, but OF all ages since tn,
world began.
Truth is stranger than fiction il
this enlightened age. 1t does seen
reasonable to suppose that man whs
had all the advantages conferred by Z
l liberal education, and one, too. who
poses as an educator of his fellow man
might once in a while take breathing
| spell and rest from his philanthropis
labors long enough to at least find out
whether he himself is on the right
road.
1t actually seems like the better ed.
| ucated = man gets, and the more scien.
tific and advanced his education, the
more likely he is to take up with the
latest fad. fashion. folly or fallacy that
is sprung upon him by the ever rest
less. imaginative and inventive genius
who tries to show that Solomon didn't
know what he was talking about when
he said there was nothing new under
the sun. This statement of the wisest
man that ever lived is just as true to-
day as 1T was when first uttered by
him, though the inventive mind of
man is continually finding new uses
for old things. 1t is because, at this
day and time, the whole scientific
world has gone crazy over leguminous
crops, as clover, cow peas, etc., i'm
putting to them almost miraculous
virtues, to the ignoring of other things
that are fully as valuable, that we feel
inclined to put in a good word for the
ill-used and sadly-abused weed. What
is weed? a plant out of place. That
il all there is of il A stalk of corn or
cotton where the corn or cotton is too
thick is as much Il weed as the most
despicable and thoroughly despisable
weed that ever grew. Our scientific
friends are always ready to tell the
farmer Just how much nitrogen, phos-
phoric acid and potash a ton of weeds
deprive tho crop of, where both are al
lowed to grow together, but seldom
the manurial value to the farmer, of
the weeds themselves. A notable ex-
ception to this altogether too general
rule is the experiment station of West
Virginia, which devoted bulletin of
nine pages toward showing the high
value of the majority of the more COM
mon weeds as n fertilizer.
Be it known that we are by no
means advocating the raising of
crop of weeds among our cultivated
crops; on the contrary, we believe in,
advocate and practice clean crops, and
such abundance of room for each and
every plant as will enable said plant
to spread itself and do its level best.
yet, as in the economy of nature. album
dant room has been found for an
crop of weeds, too; we not
only find room for them, but we also
find a use for them.
1t has been stated that ton of pig
weed contains as much phosphoric
acid, twice az much nitrogen and five
times as much potash as ton of or
binary barnyard manure. In the bull
letin above referred to, 100 pounds Of
poke weed is credited with containing
s.34 pounds Of nitrogen, "a pounds Of
phosphoric acid and eight pounds of
potash. This weed as fertilizer has
\ commercial value of 21.93 per ton. A
ton of bitter dock is worth $16.26; of |
ox-eye daisy, S16.66; burdock, $11.69;
load fax,S10.27. and so on to the end
Of long chapter. Speaking from a |
practical standpoint, we have turned |
lnder hog weed, cocklebur. rag weed.
md other weeds, when they were ten.
q or more feet high, and as fertliiz-
r and as an ameliorator of soil con-
lition have found them equal to any
# the legumes. In fact, they are bet
er. for no legume of our acquaint
nee will begin to furnish the amount
II vegetable matter that these weeds
will.
But to our teXt-''too clean farm
n.y." Can farming be too clean? Yes,
# course it can. How so? We will il /
ustrate by showing the practice of
ne of our near neighbors-one, too.
Who bore the somewhat enviable repu-
alton Though undessrved) of being
good farmer. BY this they meant
hat he invariably raised good crops.
his is no more than VIC ought to
ave done, as he had the very best of
God land to operate upon. Now what
J the result? The land is tired, worn
ut, exhausted. Why so? Because
is farming is too clean. His crops
ere annually hoed and plowed until
here was nothing left but the land.
nd that was soon killed, too. In adj
ition to clean culture, every spring
hen pillow time came, corn stalks
ere cut down. piled and burned cot
IN stalks also were pulled up and
urned. The result is that this farm.
hich but ten short years ago was one
the best farms to be found in this
ntire country. has this year, under
bod culture, utterly failed to make
bod or even passable crop, although
le entire growing season has been all
lat could be desired. He was a clean
'rmer; In fact, too clean farmer,
I'd ne succeeded in cleaning up his
rm in more ways than one. The bad =
lrt about it was, this man was on !.
nted land. The substance he was SO
antonly, though perhaps ignorantly,
asting was not his own; no, not even
right of purchase.
We want our cultivated crops rs :,
'arly absolutely clean when laid bv
1t is possible to get them; but after =
at time comes we care not how
lex the grass comes in either cotton
corn. We prefer it there; would .
UGH rather have it that naked bed. s
We believe in legumes; in fact, we Il
heve strongly ia them We believe \
them SO strongly that we drilled !,
EN- between every row of upland
oor land) corn we had. The result u
that dense mat of pea vines cover Il
entire face of the earth, as far as !.
corn extends. On our oat stubble =