Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-12-16


with hand hoes, has taken its place.
But this is not the only change in
methods of fighting weeds. Weeds
are another proof that Nature abhors |
a vacuum" She believes in putting II
every particle of ground to use, and If 1
the cultivator of it won't go her way
she soon shows him how easy it is to
get ahead of him. Up spring the
weeds and unless the gardener is on
the job just then with his hoe they
soon crowd out his plants. To keep
the ground busy all the time, produc-
ing all it can. will discourage weeds
more than half a dozen hoes.
l recently saw a striking proof Of
this. One of the largest strawberry
growers in New Jersey issued invita-
ton to the elect to visit his plant farm
and see real progress there. This is
a grower who thinks it best to make
bis land produce from 10000 to 10000
quarts of berries an acre, about ten
times the average yield, and those Der
ries Of the best quality only. There
was no waste space in his strawberry
field and when one of the visiting Il
growers asked him when and how Of
ten he cultivated he looked down at
the bed filled with heavily bearing /
plants and said. This bed was cult
waited once. about a month ago"
BY making every foot of ground pro-
Guce all it could, or, in other words
keeping it busy, he made 1t impossible
| for the weeds to get Roadway and so |
lessened the amount of work to be
done on his patch We were brought |
up on DR.. Watts couplet:
Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do"
which is no truer of Hide hands than
OF idle lands.
Idle hands may do even worse mis-
chief than grow weeds. although that
is bad enough indeed, worse than the
farmer knows. He has little idea of
the damage to his crops from weeds
growing on the roadside or on nearby
vacant plots, else he would insist upon
there being fewer idle lands near him,
CT at least upon the owners keeping
them free from weeds. Although some
weeds die off each year, more last two
years or forever, and SOW themselves
freely, their seeds being carried by the
winds and the birds. Weeds appre-
cate the soil almost as weel as garden
plants do, and many a farmer finds his
veil titled plot sown with weeds from
the neglected strip Of roadside or idle
land next him
We suffer from the sins no less than
we profit by the virtues of everybody
else. But the worst mischief that idle
lands do, entils much more misery,
hard labor and want than the growing
and sowing of weeds-garden weeds.
They grow the weeds of civilization
weeds that cause crime and degenera-
ton of the race-unemployment and
want. For if all the land now held idle
for any purpose whatever were fully
employed they would make involuntary
poverty impossible and the whole prob
lem of civilization easier to solve.
This is no news tolmost people-they
have heard it before and turn from it
in disgust, because they say, There Is
hardly any land idle near New York"
Put they are not well informed as to
the facts.
The report of the New York Tax
department shows that more than 40,
600 acres in Brooklyn-or something
more than II square miles-less than
talf Of which is built upon. If these
vacant acres were used for intensive
farming as taught in "a little Land and
Living" they would sustain in COM
fort and plenty at least 25 600 families
say $4,000 persons-and this by a
merely temporary use which would not
interfere with urban development.
There is lots of room in Queens. If
populated as densely as Manhattan is
populated it could accommodate TO-
100000 people.
If this almost idle section Of one
city could relieve the pressure by pro
viding for 100000 persons, how
many more could be provided for by
the opening of all idle land about New
York, or any other city where idleness
end want are found?
So after all, the worst crop spring
ing from idle lands is not the weeds
that farmers can kill with hoe Of
some sort, but the kind that bears
these fruits. Overcrowding in tene
lnents, overburdened charity organiza
tons, an appalling death rate among
infants, half starved children who can
not possibly make good citizens, tc
say nothing Of overlooking hospitals
and jails.
These are not exactly the crops thai
the early gardeners of the field Of civ
ilization expected their descendants tt
reap. 1t Is so easy to destroy thes'
weeds IL on every vacant lot we have
"a man to do the hoeing."
In view of this would suggest thes,
stanzas to Tom Mason and others:
Oh, farming is a pleasant trade
For those who love or choose 1t;
e you have land you do not use
Then let another use it.
Because 1t is a pleasant sight
To sec garden growing,
You'll feel better If you do right
And Eaan man