The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1904-08-15

because VI Iu0 llOquOhNJ e"AN Oe"F
BUSINESS of the rains.
Again. suppose the farmer is grow
ing grain, and that is the principle
concern of many farmers in the norCn-
western states. 1t would be within
the mark to say that more than half
the farmers, for instance, of Mime
sofa and the Dakotas, grow but little
else than grain. This means that they
plough and SOW and SOW and plough
wear in and year out. Weeds grow
I'M with the grain crops. Some OF
these are mature by harvest time.
The tops of those which are not ma
ture are clipped and at once send up
other branches and mature seeds be-
fore the land is ploughed in the
autumn. Thus another crop OF weed
seeds is buried from year to year, and
as long as lands are thus managed
weeds will constantly increase. True,
some farmers introduce the bare fall
low now and then, and in this way
check weed growth. But this is ex-
pensive and it frequently happens that
while they are busy with harvest work
the ubiquitous weeds, like Jonah's
gourd. grow up, as it were, in night
and mature seeds on the bare fallOW.
the prevailing system of t1llage, the
growth of weeds must increase. L
believe they are increasing. Where
can a clean farm be found in this
northwest? l do not mean absolutely
clean in the sense of entire freedom
from weeds. 1t is too much to hope
for that. but clean in the sense in
which that word is ordinarily under
tO |
that it is not creditable to the farm
ing of any state or country that 1T
should be possible to maintain in 1t
a flourishing industry in feeding live
stock in which screenings, which is
virtually another name for weed seeds,
| is the basic food. Nor when these
things are said is it meant that farm
ers generally are Indifferent to the
presence of weeds. Many of them
want to fight them, many of them are
! fighting them and with much intelli-
gence, but they are fighting them at
a tremendous disadvantage.
I see no other way of fighting nox
ious weeds on the unfenced prairie
tnat will be effective in the absence
of live stock than by resorting TO
the bare fallow and taking such care
of it when it is resorted to as will
prevent any weed seeds from matur-
ing on it. Something may be done by
laying down a part of the land 70
grass, but in the absence of live stock
no more pasture is wanted than will
suffice for the needs of the horses
used in tilling the land. Corn cannot
be grown, as there would be moth
ing to feed it to- and much of the
area referred to is too far north to
grow corn profitably except for feed
ing upon the farm If the condition
referred to is to change, the change
must be brought about by introduc-
ing and maintaining live stock upon
the farms. Where this is not done
farmers must summer-fallow their
land every few years, a process that
is expensive, and as ordinarily car
ried on, exhaustive to fertility. The
process of handling land thus is al
ways exhaustive to fertility, for the
grain thus grown must needs be sold.
The whole process is exhaustive to
fertility. If universally practiced and
long continued it will bankrupt any
country.
What then is to be done? Why,
introduce live stock. Any kind OF
live stock will be helpful as it means
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