Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1877 — Growing Weeds. [ARTICLE]

Growing Weeds.

How many tons of useless weeds does every farm grow annually? It would be a good exercise in arithmetic to determine this problem. It is a law of nature that all spaces must be filled with something. Nature abhors a vacuum, and from the opening spring, “ when every clod feels a stir cf might,” until autumn, the earth eontiu ues to send up into the air these veg etable forms. True economy in culture prevents the growth of weeds entirely. If the ground is frequently stirred weeds will not appear at all. It is when the processes of culture are suspended nature asserts her prerogative and occupies the whole domain. No one expects to rid his soil of weed seeds to that degree that there will never be any more to molest. Wherever and whenever there are heat, light and moisture, weeds will appear. The true policy Is for every farmer to provide himself with the ready means of destroying them. Among hoed crops a cheaply-construct-ed one horse harrow is a veiy effoctive implement. Any one can construct it, and by the aid of a blacksmith in forming the teeth the whole cost need not exceed two dollars. This can be u«ed among small growing crops and among corn and potatoes as soon as the rows are visible, and even sooner. We have had a tool just made in the form of an old-fashioned onehorse cultivator with nine teeth, which are made offlve-ighth by one inch Swedes iron, or horse-shoe bar, rounded at the top with a nut and screw, and the lower points drawn out forward a little and flattened. lit is an excellent tool for working close to young plants, for loosening the soil and destroying the weeds. It is made without a wheel in front—cheap, though durable; one eannot keep crops free from weeds without good tools. We have seen corn fields kept clean wit® nothing but a common plow and hoe, but the hand labor was too great. As a hand-tool, the common hoe is altogether behind the flat-tined potato-hook. One of these hooks will do the work of two hoes. —Detroit I'ribune.