The Van Buren press., 1898-10-22
FARMER AND PLANTER.
TOO CLEAN FARMING.
A New Idea Set Forth for the Farmer to
Ponder-A Plea In Behalf of
the Weeds.

the part of human nature in general
to, if they see a good thing, pass ii
along. and in the passing along of this
good thing they are determined 10 go
the whole hog or none; mother words,
they go as far as their rope will let
them, and if they only have rope
enough, they will either hang them
selves or get badly tangled. This is
and has been true, not only of the
present age, but of all ages since the
world began.
Truth is stranger than fiction in
this enlightened age. 1t does seem
reasonable 10 suppose that a man who
had all the advantages conferred by
liberal education, and one, too, who
poses as an educator of his fellow man.
might once in while take breathing
spell and rest from his philanthropic
labors long enough to at least find out
whether he himself is on the right
road.
1t actually seems like the better ed
ueated a man gets, and the more sclen-
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 IT 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 10 put in good word for the
ill-used and sadly-abused weed. What
is a weed? A plant out of place. That
is all there is of it. A stalk of corn or
cotton where the corn or cotton is too
thick is as much a 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 the 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 a 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, ,abun-
dant room has been found for an
abundant crop of weeds, too; we not
only nHu TOOIu luI lHtHl, Dut NC diSO
find use for them.
1t has been stated that a ton of pig
weed contains as much phosphoric
acid, twice as much nitrogen and five
times as much potash as a ton of or
dinary barnyard manure. In the bull
letin above referred to, 100 pounds of
poke weed is credited with containing
3.34 pounds of nitrogen, "a pounds of
phosphoric acid and eight pounds of
potash. This weed as a fertilizer has
a commercial value of 21.93 per ton. A
ton of bitter dock is worth $16.26; of
ox-eye daisy. S16.66; burdock, S11.69;
toad fiaX,S1027. and so on to the end
of a long chapter Speaking from a
practical standpoint we have turned
under hog weed, cocklebur, rag weed.
and other weeds, when they were ten,
12 or more feet high, and as fertliiz-
er and as an ameliorator of soil con-
dition have found them equal to any
of the legumes. In fact, they are bet
ter, for no legume of our acquaint
ance will begin to furnish the amount
of vegetable matter that these weeds
will.
But to our text-"too clean farm
ing" Can farming be too clean? Yes,
of course il can. How so? We will il
lustrate by showing the practice of
one of our near neighbors-one, too.
who bore the somewhat enviable repu-
tatiou Though undeserved) of being
good farmer. BY this they meant
that he invariably raised good crops
This is no more than we ought TO
have done. as he had the very best of
good land TO operate upon. Now what
is the result? The land is tired. worn
out, exhausted. Why so? Because
his farming is too clean. His crops
were annually hoed and plowed until
there was nothing left but the land,
and that was soon killed. too. In ad-
dition to clean culture, every spring
when plow time came, corn stalks
ton stalks also were pulled up and
burned. The result is that this farm,
which but ten short years ago was one
of the best farms to be found in this
entire country, has this year, under
good culture, utterly failed to make
good or even passable crop, although
the entire growing season has been all
that could be desired. He was a clean
farmer; in fact, too clean farmer,
and he succeeded in cleaning up his
farm in more ways than one. The bad
part about it was, this man was on
rented land. The substance he was so
wantonly, though perhaps ignonntly,
wasting was not his own; no, not even
by right of purchase.