The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-10-05
OB9T|NACY IN VEG
ETAbLE WORLD

Corn end Beans and Things Must Be
Worked and Petted While Weeds
Flourish Despite Efforts to Destroy
Would weeds Grow if Cultivatedo
Mrs. J. Lindsay Patterson, Of Winston
Salem.
What do you suppose is the reason
that a weed will grow in any soil and
under most adverse conditions
fourishing like a combination of
J0nah's gOurd and Jacks beanstalk,
while a vegetable has to be petted
and axe and worked over till you're
black in the face-with the chances
that before 1t reaches maturity, worms
or bugs or blight or something will
bring it to an untimely end.
II is one of the many mysteries of
& most mysterious vegetable world,
isn't it
Take corn. for instance, with six
feet or more of stalk above ground,
and six feet of root under. I'm sure
about the length of root, ecaus the
thing that impressed me most at the
Chicago fair was the tremendous
root growth of corn. | saw it in the
Agricultural building and was abso-
lutely fascinated by the great fbrous
mass. The man in charge told me
they ruined a corn field and spent
50, 200 before they got this one out
of the ground in a perfect state. It
was done by means of water, he Sa1d.
Now. wouldn't it seem reasonable
10 suppose that a great strong plant
like that Would choke out any and
everything near it, unless it were oak
trees or elephants or iron mines?
But there's no reason in vegetables.
Not a bit. l got 50 fretted Owe the
sugar corn which had been plowed
and hoed and weeded and wrestled
with and agonized over, that I made
up my mind to have nothing more to
do with such troublesome methods of
cultivation [ could have raised a
whole orphan asylum with less ex-
penditure of time and energy. SO l
decided to let the next corn take care
of itself. 1t should have a good
start. The soil was rich and put in
good condition. Then when the seed
was planted, l made q valedictory
address to that patch. / said: I'm
not going to plow you, nor hoe YOU.
able to take care of yourself, YOU
great, fat, lazy vegetable, YOU, as
pOkeberries or wild onions or long
leaVed plantain. Now so ahead and
do it or die. OF get no more help
from me-
ana 1t Went a19iN. FOf 1t G1oHLll
nothing ever did grow and flourish
and fill gardeners minds with false
hopes as did that deceitful plant. My
delight was SO great [ was OF the eve
of writing the Agricultural Depart
ment at Washington telling them of
my notable discovery, but fortunately
[ waited in order to think up a lot of
scientific words in which to proclaim
the good news and impress them
properly with its Importance, wher.
all at once, without rhyme or reason,
that corn baked. No other word eX-
presses what it did. It baked: just
stood right stock still like an old gray
mule and that can stand stiller than
anything else in creation. Well, [ had
said [ wasn't going to cultivate that
corn and I didn't. For about five
weeks it remained stationary. Not an
inch did it grow, but you should have
seen the weeds. Indeed, by that time
nothing could be seen but weeds. SO
the whole thing vas cut down and
rye sOWn for the Jersey cows winter
bill of fare. Some of these days, out
of sheer curiosity, l am going to cult
waite a weed: SOW the seed in the hot
bed. transplant carefully to open
ground, cultivate a~Ssiduously and see
what will happen. The chances are,
of course. that it will die. / find OBJ
stinacy TO be as striking a character
istic of the vegetable kingdom as it
is of the animal. (The other corn
gets the usual number of plOWings and
hnaipo c