Farm economy; a cyclopedia of agriculture for the practical farmer and his family; including seed selection, soils and soil fertility, the garden and the orchard, concrete on the f by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Agriculture
Publisher: Minneapolis, Minn., H.L. Baldwin Publishing Company
Published: 1915-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER VI.

CONDITIONS WHICH TEND TO BRING ABOUT WEEDY

CONDITIONS OF LAND

I. Introduction. II. Winter Drifting of Seed. III. Effect of Drainage. IV. Seed Contamination — Seed .\dulteration. V. Distribution of Seed and Forage Stuf?. VI. Buried Weed Seed. VII. Barnyard Manures, Compost Heaps as Sources of Weed Distribution. VIII. Parasitic Disease — Fungous Diseases.

Introduction — As indicated in other paragraphs of this book, it is perfectly natural for plants of all kinds to spring up when the ground is idle or improperly handled. This is really a provision of nature which is of great benefit. Many farmers are so anxious to reap crops that if it were not for the constant encroachment of weedy grasses and other plants which occupy and hold down the land, it would become tilled to such condition, and possibly cropped to certain special crops so long, that it would be completely worn out. If the grasses and weeds did not take possession of all the bare areas, the soil would soon be washed away or become a drifting mass very similar to a desert. However, this provision of nature is well understood by most able farmers, and in this text we have undertaken to tell how to fight weeds, not to indicate the benefits which arise from their presence. It is, however, well known by many, that under certain conditions large crops of weedy growth plowed under form a green manure, which, while not of the best type, is a good substitute for preventing an entire loss of humus. Therefore, while no great harm is done from allowing large growths of certain native and introduced plants to occur on one's farm, if plowed under at the proper time, yet great damage may be done by allowing the growth of comparatively small patches of some kinds of weeds to ripen seeds. In this connection it is important to consider some of the causes underlying the growth of weeds.

A very wide range of plants has developed under natural conditions, and each of certain kinds has special ability to occupy immediately the various types of land which may, from various causes either natural or artificial, become vacant or idle. Each plant is adapted to avail itself of some natural means for its seed distribution. Some have their seeds or seed containers so constructed as to be readily carried by wind; some seeds, because of their peculiar structure, float upon the waters; others are swallowed by birds and other animals and distributed with their manure. The most rapid means of dissemination is by means of wind; seeds so sown are for example: the dandelion, sow thistle,

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