Norwich bulletin., 1913-07-26

IWrftten Specially for The B0lletlA>)
 A correspondent whose life is bothered almost out of him by weeds writes to say that he is seriously thinking of dropping manure and re- lFang wholly Opor chemicals He UoaaerS 1T 1t would be wise to dc SO
 ! once went through that sasRe ex~ perlssseal It was along aboaE the time when I f1rst took up truck gardening. tvnta&fr~aF aud rather gfngeE1S> My f1r$t discovery about that form 0f fsrxnfnS was tAat the amount of time and laber required to fight weeds uaSn,t adequately 1oret0ld in any thing had read or any institute talk I had heard. During those 1irst few SoasorS tase lsAor-cost of lighting wweelS ln a few garden acres used np Su the pcosSt from sales of the crops L.ske my correspondent. l suspected tAaR the SoGrcs was largely my ma uareA Cows and sheep had $ range orcr forty acres of hillside bearing ranr~ than forty kinds of weeds Weeds were also move or less pseVS- lerzr in the hay which was fed the h0<SeS And I bought manure From my nesghborS, WAeneEer sd wherever I could find iI for sale once took up a ~sroop-ShoreI@ full Of the chaEI and litter which accumulates on barn 6eedinR-17oor and scattered It orer q srn2lI patch of garden, say twenty feet square and raGed n ln> The idea was ts see how much of II ! would grow and what it would grow ink0.
 t<srsx E all gresg. cant satis- i fzrsarisy explain The swamp of weeds and TrasS which followed by any as- sumption other than that every seed ana every bit of clAah and every grain l of dust grew, and made al lesaSt duzen shoots.
 never found out all that was in it. There seemed to be everything far u1er doesn't want There were more | kinds of weeds than lively lamb could shake his tail at during hot day in fy-time. In truth. I got so scared over the possibilities of its growing up and going to seed that mOsEed it oil and dug 1t up before tha { crop was half grown
 Now, in the ordinary course of work. most of that litter would have gone our into tE1e baEn-yard- or into the c0M managers and sheep racks. or { fnro the h@n-Eard From all these II Wousd have passed into the manure a6 been spread on my gardens
 Gee Ut2xs What an amount of hard and rzckfng work l was preparing for rzySeT and my crzmped 5n%er-ends and my crezkzng back and my cal bDEsed knees. when I brOadcaSted { those weed seeds i'm my mAnure.
 se | hm1mn fo wonder, as my cor resDCndent does Whether my gEI1&2en- ing salvation didn't lie in the rs5ec- rHnn of wee6-6earing farm nranmreE and the g4bS1hsutlon of WeedlESs fer tf7Szers compounded chiefly of chem icaAM-
 Bur to cut out an manure seemed Ench deparTwe from all the accept ed trAdfs5DAs of farming that I decid- ed 10 do a M1Ile experimenting before
 
 words ' would ~uy it on the dog before dosed the whole menageTy-
 So for several yearS, I gave up 1 certain garden patch 10 fertilizers alone using no fanm-made manure | from any source on it.
 Fer a year or tNSo, ] thought l was on the right track This fertilizer { pazch did vel The crops were as good as those raised on manure1 land, and the work of wedding was mani { festly reduced
 Then I began to notice falling oH ] The soil began 10 get lumpy- It ! T0zadn't harrow or cultivate fine Moreover. ix became n0&6ceAb1y less able to stand even . eEa0Tt GrOuth- 1 And the plants didn't grow rankFy. The resz1Rfa11 cKorS dTSpd1ed.
 So I increased tlse quantity Of fer ] tf1szeT. The last year Of my expe- rfmaent I put on at the rate of more I than tEo tons to tine acre of a home l compounded fertilizer, running about l s-&-12. f e six per cent nitrogen, eight 4 per cent Tss9SDaOTtc acid and twelve | per cent potash
 And I dIAHst get of tho experimental 1 patch that year enough produce to S pay for the fertilizer materials alone, 4 to say nothing of labor and taxes and \ interest and 0ztse~ 5ncademta1St
 MsraA vSu. f koasosa& my aaa4exsAsS a and mixed tbeFn myself thus saving