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THE SOUTHERN WORLD, JUNE 1, 1882,
Weeds In Agriculture.
The relation of weeds to agriculture is so
intimate that farming has almost come to
be a business of weed killing. It is therefore
to the point to show how this destruction
can best be done, and not spend any time on
that old and trite growl of showing up a
weed in its worst light. It can be taken for
granted that a weed is a bad plant and one
that is not desired, and the vital part of the
matter is to know how to best rid the land
of the pests.
In the first place it should be understood
that a weed is not so different in constitu
tion from a useful plant as to be killed by
any agent, or in nny way that will not also
destroy the crop plants. There has frequent
ly been a cry for some substance that could
he put on the soil that would make it clean
of weeds. This reminds us of the man that
we saw not long ago that had a kind of ma
nure to put around the apple trees to keep
the coddling moth from the apples. There
is nothing that can be dropped in a hill of
corn that will make it weed proof, and at the
same time permit of a vigorous growth of the
corn. No panacea can be applied to a field
of wheat that will destroy the Quack grass,
and leave the crop unharmed. When a far
mer has to deal with weeds he must adopt
methods which if applied to useful plants
would lead to their destruction.
Weeds have seeds! This is not a new
fact by any means; but it is here stated that
the following part may he made the more im
pressive. Weeds grow from seeds just os
other plants do; they may have other
methods of propagation, but they go from
place to place in the seed form more gener
ally than any other way. Many of our
weeds came from Kurope, and then crossed
the sea as seeds. Many of our weeds are
spreading Westward, and they doit by being
carried in various waysin the form of seed.
Tiie first measure to be taken against weeds
is therefore to not sow their seeds. Clover
seed has probably been the vehicle by meuns
of which scores of kinds of weeds have be
come wide-spread. For example, a farmer
in Michigan buys clover seed from New
York or Massachusetts, and sows his fields
with it; lie may at the sunie time introduce
into his mellow soil the narrow-leaved plan
tain, the ox-eye duisy, or some one or more
other obnoxious plants.
Tiie easiest way to kill weeds is while they
..are in tiie seeds, provided tiie weed seeds are
recognized. Kvery farmer cannot examine
every seed he sows; but he can be very
guarded in buying seeds, especially of those
kinds that from their small size may be the
meuns of introducing untold trouble info
otherwise comparatively cleun land.
Next to the keeping of the weed seeds out
of the ground is the killing of weedssoon af
ter germination. There are a number of
reasons for this. First, they can be killed
with greater ease while young. Take for
example, the weeds in a root crop; if they
are destroyed as they first make their ap
pearance, the work is light to what it is a
few weeks later. In the second place, the
effect on the crop is not so bad. If weeds
are left to grow until they are of considera
ble size they extract n great deal of nourish
ment from the soil that the crop plants need,
nnd in not getting it they are enfeebled.
Kvery weed that grows takes tiie food from
tho soil, nnd as weeds are better able to sur
vive in a struggle with cultivated plants,
they will, if left to themselves, come out
masters of the situation. The ancestors of
the weeds have had to steal a living so-to-
speuk, nnd it has become asccond nature for
weeds to get into the ground as quickly as
possible.
The weeds are very sure to look out for
their own kind or kindred and will ripen
and spread a large Held of seeds. Look at
the Canada thistle, one of the worst of
weeds. It not only ripens a host of weeds
but provides each one with an airy balloon
by means of which it is taken far away by
tbo wind, thus securing a wide dissemina
tion of the seeds of this pest. One farmer
may keep his thistles from growing while
an adjoining neighbor lets his thistles seed
down the whole region round about. Then
there are the tick seeds and “beggar's lice,’’
and “pitch forks’’—all weeds and bad ones,
that leave their seeds provided with hooks
to catch unto the hair and wool of animals
and are in that way carried fur from the
plant that produced them.
If weeds can not be killed in the seed,
and it is out of the question to kill them
when young, the next best thing is to keep
them from going to seed. This is a difficult
thing to do, nnd whatever may be said on
weed-killing, it will be a longtime before we
have no weeds. Does it look like extermin
ation when by actual count a single "Pass-
ley” plant has been known to produce a mil
lion seeds! and that in the short space of a
few weeks.
Weeds are thoroughly bad 1 In one sense
they are and in another they are not. Indi
rectly they improve our agriculture, making
it more systematic, offerings bounty or pre
mium for labor. Without weeds the lazy
man would stand more nearly on a par
with the worker. Without weeds the soil
would not be tilled as much as it now is,
when properly tended; they may be just
that Bort of a spur to industry that it is
well for every farmer to fee). This is cer
tainly looking on the bright side of the mat
ter ; the side that says to the eternally vigi
lant that theirs is the victory.
Weeds may be like sins, or rather the
temptations to sin, which overcome the
weak but add strength to those tbnt come off
conquerors. This is a closing argument in
favor of being a strong fighter in the battle
against the weeds.
Electricity In Agriculture.
This is an age of electricity—one in which
very many things are done not only with
lightning speed but with lightning itself-
Look at the Wonderful nature of our present
transatlantic communication. Think of the
quickness and ease with which we talk from
one city to another both by signs and sounds
with the electric telegraph and by the voice
in the telephone. The world thought no
greater achievement could be made, when
steam was hnrnessed and made the servant
of man; but tbe past few years has led to
still greater triumphs over the material
world and that subtile force we call electric
ity is now a messenger of swiftness nnd a gi
gantic factor in a progressive civilization.
What we may hope for from electricity as
a helper for the farmer no one is ready to
state. It does not seem reasonable that the
earliest ofullurts and the most essential of
all human occupations should not in time
come on for its large share of benelitsfrom
the subjugation of electric force. Kven now
we hear from across the water that plowing
has been successfully done by electricity in
the (lelds. The French furmers have har
nessed lightning to the plow and with good
results. If this force can turn the furrow it
is reasonable to suppose that it can reap the
grain, bind it into sheaves, thresh the same
and carry it to mill. It is truly hard to
guess how great may be the progress in this
direction within the next twenty years.
But electricity as it is now employed has
much more for the farmer than he may at
llrst think. It is the almost universally
ndopted means of quick transportation of
news, and by it the coming of u storm may
be sent forward in advance so that the far
mer may know the fuel and make the nec
essary preparations that the storm may not
be a source of loss. The farmer should avail
himself of this swift-footed messenger more
than he lies done in the past. The signal
service could do very little without the tele
graph, and without the farmer uses the in
formation that is thus collected and dis
seminated the service cun only partly ac
complish the work it has been established
to perform.
There are very few things that do more
damage to the farmer than heavy storms in
haying and harvesting time, nnd millions of
doltais might be saved if the furmers would
only uvail themselves of the information
which is brought os near to them as the tel
egraph will allow.
We therefore urge upon all agricultural
districts to do something to put the furmers
in closer communication with tbe signal
service. Electricity is already within the
reach of the great mass of farmers. Some
one says: “If I only knew that it would not
rain to-day I would cut a field of clover.”
The signal service can tell him in nine cases
out of ten what the weather is to be for the
next twenty-four hours with good and valu
able predictions of what it will be fora day
or more after. last the good work of .fore,
warning and therefore forearming the farm
ing classes be pushed forward and by all
means let electricity be u swift handmaid
in this scheme of economy.
There is another aspect to our subject.
The untamed electricity of the clouds has
its influence upon the farmer. In its wild
swiftness it strikes destruction upon build
ings and other property. If we cannot con
veniently yoke the lightning to the plow or
make it the messenger of good and saving
news we should at least do our best to pre
vent its doing serious damage.
Much has been said for and against conduc
tors of electricity, or in other words against
lightning rods. There is no doubt but what
many farmers and others have been severely
humbugged by "lightning rod peddlers,"
The man who goes around putting up poor
rods in a slipshod manner at an exorbitant
price is the humbug, and not the principle
of electric conduction. It is a well known
fact in physics or natural philosophy, that
some substances are better conductors of elec
tricity than .others, and as in a thunder
storm a certain amount of electricity is to
pass from tbe cloud to the earth it will take
the easiest passage. Metals are good conduc
tors and when rods of them are put on build
ings of the proper size and in the right way
the building is rendered comparatively safe.
A rod of iron three-fourths of an inch in
diameter is large enough to conduct a heavy
bolt of electricity. The form of the rod is of
very little account and glass insulators are
entirely unnecessary. It is to be remember
ed that the electricity will take the easiest
channel, or road to the earth therefore have
the rod run as direct as possible from the
top of tbe building to the wet earth. It was
formerly thought that the tip of the rod
should be of some bright metal and very
sharp pointed; this is not required and the
rod may be painted without injuring it.
There is nothing about a lightning rod that
a blacksmith cannot make—any fancy twists
are foolishness and when made the rods can
be put up by the farmer at a small fraction
of the price demanded by the rod peddler.
If the rods are for the houiie the upper end
may project above the chimney and pass ss
direct as possible to deep earth or better in
to the well. Strong bolts should hold the
rod in place, and above all see that no joint
ever gets separated from which the descen
ding lightning must make a leap in its pas
sage and enter the building as the easiest
way to the earth.
The number of roils will depend upon the
area of surface to be protected. As a general
rule a rod will protect a space around the
jioint equal to twice its height, though gen
erally rods are placed nearer than this. There
is no object to any number of rods on u
building except expense. It should he fixed
in mind that a badly erected roil is worse
than no roil; and it is from this that roils
have fallen in favor with many. The roil
attracts the electricity and if it is not able to
conduct it safely away the building is more
apt to be struck. Uooil roils, which muy he
very simple, are protection, nnd every far
mer should diminish the risks of his farm
property by erecting them on his buildings,
thus overcoming one of the evil relations of
electricity to agriculture.
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