HOW TO DEAL WITH WEEDS

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3181, 12 November 1892, Page 6 (Supplement)

HOW TO DEAL WITH WEEDS

There is only one way of keeping down weeds on arable land, and that is by constantly hoeing and scarifying. The work may be accomplished just about as cheapty, but more perfectly and beneficially to the soil when green crops are grown and consumed on the land, as when it is performed on the bare fallows. The Mark Lane Express makes some remarks on the subject of hoeing corn which convey some sound precepts that may be practised by many farmers eveu in this country. " Hoeing," says the writer, " acts beneficially in so many ways that its value is difficult to estimate. How many crops have been saved almost certain loss by a timely hoeing could not be ascertained, but we have seen many where by judicious opening of the soil moisture has been retained to the soil during periods

of prolonged drought when the crop would have starved for lack of moisture if such an operation had not been performed. Constant hoeing combined with early autumn cultivation or stubble paring will free land from the most persistent annual weeds ; this is proved at the Woburn Experimental Farm, for whereas the crops were absolutely smothered by heg-grass fifteen years ago, by constant attention those weeds are exterminated, as there is no seed in the land to grow. This result was obtained within a very few years of the rigid practice of hoeing and autumn paring being commenced there. We know farms where charlock was rife that within eight years became perfectly free from the pest, because none was allowed to go to seed. Many other instances might be quoted where similar results have been obtained where land has been overrun with equally obnoxious weeds. Systems of cropping and methods of tillage must of course be arranged to allow the best results to be obtained, but they are ineffectual if there is not recourse to the hoe."