The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1904-02-01

we may classify the most of the veget-
able pes s; while the most of our ami
NAL pests are insects. Can we see
anything beneficial in weeds? Not di-
rectly But hesitate not to say that
the farmers of the United States have
been benefited to the extent of mil
lions of dollars by the presence of
weeds in their fields. Why does the
average farmer till his soil? To kill
the weeds and if the weeds were not
there the tilling would not be done
in most cases. Now it is we'll known
to the thoroughly educated farmer that
his soil should be titled If there were
not weed to be found on the farm.
Moreover, some of the best tilling
should be done before the weeds make
their appearance or before the seed
for our contemplated crop is committed
to the earth I hazard nothing in
saying that the chief aim in tilling
the soil should be to fine the earth
so that it can give up it's fertility and
also to conserve moisture. In my
boyhood days when l plowed corn
''from sun to sun" had but one object
before me. That was to kill the rag
weed, foxtail, purslane, sun flowers and
other weeds. If any one had suggest
ed to me in those days that the soil
should be stirred for any other purpose
than to kill weeds, should probably
have said as soon as he got away:
"Poor man, he is not all there; they'll
soon have him in the asylum for the
insane" The vast majority of farmers
in the past had, and vastly too many
at the present time have the same
idea l had in my boyhOod days. They
toiled and sweat and sometimes swore
at the weeds and kept up the fight,
and without knowing it got a great
benefit from fining the soil, all of
which they would have missed but
for the presence of that class of pests.
Score one, and big one too, for
weeds!
Now, it will not be claimed that in
all cases there will be so much indi-
rect benefit in fighting pests. In many
cases we do not yet know of any bene-
fits derived from our efforts to control
or eradicate certain pests. In using
the Bordeaux mixture in my first spray
ing each year for the codling moth,
which was done primarily to make the
material stick, l am confident that
have improved the color of the foliage
of my apple trees and benefited the
color of my apples. AS in the case
of weeds the indirect benefit may be
known when we are better acquainted
with the results of our spraying.
There is, however, benefit that is
almost universal, coming to the man
who successfully cOmbats insect pests
and fungus diseases. Many fruit grow
ers will not fight these pests at all,
or only very imperfectly, and the re-
suit is that the man with the clean
fruit will realize more from his fruit
than he could if there were no pests.
Some have gone so far as to say
that if there were no pests with which
to contend in the raising of apples, the
fruit would be so plentiful that no
money could be made at the business.
do not fully endorse that position,
but it is without doubt true that in
that case our profits would be less.
1t would be very sordid view, in
deed, for us to desire that others
should have misfortune that we may
thereby get gain. l saw statement
in one of the big dailies of the Pacific
coast, not long since, in which the
hope was expressed that Russia and
Japan might go to war as the people
of the United States would get better
,,riooc for thoir haef nOrk and wheat