Norwich bulletin., 1910-07-23
What Weeds Show. What Dry TiIIage Does

written Specially for The BuIIetin.)
We are having a real old ia shioned
drouth up this way. The roads are
deep in powdery dust; the upland
meadows are browning fast; many po-
ratio fields are dying from lack of
ter; even corn is backward and stunt
ed. I've been taking a leaf from the
experience of the western dry wealth
culttvation-deep or shallow, as the
different crops require-realyy helps a
good deal in conserving moisture.
The trouble is that many crops,
wuch grass and grains, cannot be
cultiva ted while growing-at least not
after having attained some consider
able size. Corn, however, one can keep
cultivated up to the time it tasselS-
perhaps even later. We've just been
through a patch in which the tasselS
are quite frequent Thus far we've
been over that little bit with either
cultivator. horseshoe, hand tools
seven times. It's the best piece of
corn I've got-better than any I've
seen about town. It's on dry, gravel
". soil, too. In spite of the frequent
civilizations it's a little weedy, even
now. I suspect that any general treat
rnent which is good for the crop is
good for the weeds, too-if it doesn't
quite tear up by the roots Really
however, I'm not worrying much about
weeds. not half so much as I used to.
In small crops, such as onions and
parsnips and carrots and celery and
the like. they're "a nuisance and must
be cleaned out. But the best corn I've
ever had has been from land which,
despite much cultivation and horse
hoeing, was infested with rank
Krowths of pig-weed or wild spinach,
-'red root" Wild buckwheat, and the
like. If the soil is strong enough and
rich enough to grow good corn or po-
tatoes, 1T is going to be mighty good
for weeds, too I'm beginning to grow
naturally too clean" If it won't
grow weeds, L set to work at once
Bringing it into condition so it will.
Not that | try to encourage weeds
for their own sakes. Durn EN-, no!
I've no liking for them as weeds. But
they serve something like a thermom
eter, to tell you the state of the soil
temperature of the air. If the weeds
find certain piece of land satisfac-
tory as a seed bed. I'm reasonably con-
ndeRt that the same land will make a
good home for plants more useful than
weeds If a. certain course of cultiva
ton seems to be stimulating to the
weeds, the probability is that it will
also help boost the crop I'm after.
Moreover one can kill most of the
weeds. if they get too familiar and
pushing. Don't understand me as
favoring such slipshod work as leaves
the weeds to grow unchecked, just so
a. 10 1ndlCaCG the richness Oh the nelq.
Far from it. 1 believe in keeping 'em
down. What mean is that their per
sistence and vigor in coming up afresh |
after every cultivation doesn't worry |
me one tiny little bit
The old farmers used to pioW out and |
hand hoe their corn and weed the hills |
with their fingers chiefly if not solely |
to kill the weeds. T. on the other !
hand, cultivate and horseshoe and hand |
hoe, too, when occasion calls for it, |
but l do it to stir uD and aerate and |
mulch, first of ALTO kill weeds as a |
useful but secondary consideration. |
You've heard of the man who declar- |
ed that weeds were the farmers best |
frierds--because they made him cult |
vate his soil when, but for their visible |
there was no necessity for it? Well, |
I'm coming somewhat to his way of
thinking.
One can't do much at oultivating a
meadow, three years in grass So my |
that corn we can cultivate. And it IS |
not drying up; it is growing like Jo- /
nah's gourd, tall rank, deep green. |
with every present promise of a bunk |
UNI crop. Right by the side, too, and |
on the same sort of land as the dry |
ing grass. The only difference has
been in the cultivation. Similarly, |
my second and late crop peas have |
hzzled completely out: died and dried /
up in the rows. They got a good |
start, grew thriftily and rank1y till the
drouth set in. We poultry netting
as brush for the vines to climb on
and. when that is once up and the
vines are beginning to cling to it,
horse cultivation is out of the ques-
ton At present prices for labor, hand
hoeing and wedding are quite as i'm
practicable 1t would cost more to
keep my peas hand hoed than 1 could
get for the whole crop. But right be-
side the dead peas. beers and carrots
and parsnips and asparag gus which we
can cultfvate-can and do-are simply
rioting in luxuriant triumph, despite the
droI1fh