Ogden Daily Standard | 1915-08-28 | Page 22 | The Weed a Dangerous Foe

BBHjl r . H The Weed a Dangerous Foe. Hj v'ON'T Imagine that the weed Is a Hj I foe of small account. It Is Just be- Hlj J cause his enemy Intentlonsarc so Hj! rarely rocognlzed that ho is so Hj dangerous. To put the matter In Hl a nutshell, weeds reduce our annual pro duction in wheat, vegetables, potatoes, Ittc, by about 50 per cent. Hero area, few of the sins for which weeds must anawor: They encroach upon the space required J for our crops. They rob the crops of M water, plant food, light, air, and warmth. B They hinder cultivation, and attract. In H i many cats, certain Insects and forms of H J fungus, entertaining them, as It were, un- Hf til- the time Is ripe for attacking the crops. H They poison crops (and sometimes chll- H dren. tpo). They can show no practical H virtue. Hl . It you want to tcit the truth of this Hfl 'at any time you can always do so, pro- Hl vldcd you have a small garden patch to work on. Divide, say, the carrot bed Into two parts. Let one-half look after Itself, but carry your war upon weed's Into the other half. In a few months you will soon have lc irncd your lesson. Tests of this kind have actually been carried out on a largo scale. In one such test fields of wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, pota-toes, and various other crops were separated sepa-rated Into equal sections, and every alternate alter-nate section was weeded with skill and care. Tho Intervening, sections woro given over to the tender mercies of the weeds. When, at harvest lime, tho crops wtru lifted and weighed tho average loss In the un weeded sections worked out at to per cent. The common sensible way of increasing our home production Is to prevent Its being be-ing prevented from growjng hy useless weeds. Look out for thistles, docks, dandelion, dan-delion, buttercup, chlckwccd, .daisy, eolUfoot. and nettles.