Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1910-09-25
STUNTS, BRUSH, WEEDS, GRASS.

We pay larger tax every year for stumps, brush, weeds and grass than is required to support our muh- icipal, county, State and Federal governments, to endow all the col leges and educate all the youth ol the land; and we get no return. stump not only occupies valuable space but it prevents the use Of inn
 proved implements for better and more rapid tillage of the soil. The most of farm labor is on the increase with the certainty that this will continue till the equation of wages on the farms and in the town or city
 is more equal. The remedy for higher priced labor on the farm is the use of more and better teams and implements. If the day wage on the farms of the South advances from $75 to $150 then each farm hand must blow, plant, and cultivate twice as many acres in day a., lie did be- fore and this is an easy problem. But the stumps must go. and the farmer who does not try to get rid of them will soon be back number. The stump farmer pays about $3.00 an acre every year for the privilege of having stumps in his fields. In , addition, there are generally few : feet of untitled soil around every field stump which produce foul weeds : and grasses to seed the land.
 What has been charged against the stumps applies with still more force to trees, shrubs and brush patches in the field; dig, burn, destroy; they are natural enemies of the farmer Straighten out the sides of the field
 square up the corners and avoid the short rows as much as possible; they
 increase the work of tillage.
 Farmers have become so accustom-
 ed to fighting weeds and grass in the cultivated fields that they regard
 it as matter of necessity. They think the land is full of foul seeds
 and of course they will germinate
 when it rains.
 When virgin soils are first placed
 ill cultivation they are comparative
 ly free from weeds and grass, and i ty management on the part of the farmers. It is not difficult to dis. cover the real causes. First, care. 1 less cultivation, which allows weeds and grass to mature seed in the cul. i tivated field. Second, little attention IS paid to the highways, the brush
 patches, the fence corners and the pastures, and they are almost uni Vefsally breeding grounds for foul weeds and grass. It has been charg- ed that the Southern farmer is care- less It may be true in some things
 put i'll one thing too many of them
 stand first among the farmers ot the World-they never fail to raise a crop of weed and grass seed large enough to seed their own fields an
 their neighbors.'
 The cost of this universal weed and grass seeding amounts annually to more than five dollars for each acre Ill corn, and ten dollars for each acre Ill cotton. In 1909 in the states or Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Geor-
 gla' Louisiana, Mississippi, Nortl, Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. there were 4O,965,0O0 acres in corn and 3O.- 693,OOO acres in cotton, which would show a yearly loss of over 511 mil. 'iens of dollars. This loss can be greatly reduced by intensive cult,- "atlon continued as late in the sea. son as possible and by moving the roadsides, the fence corners. the borders of the fields and the pas- lures in June and in Augus.. At frs, It sems like waste of laror, 5u, its beneficial effects soon become an. parent.
 persistent war on weeds ana grass, stumps and b 'ush, in the fields 's one of the great progressive more. ments necessary to progress in agri. culture.
 s. A. KNAPP,