THE GARDEN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 764, 22 October 1886, Page 15

THE GARDEN.

HOW WEEDS DESTROY PLANTS. We are ail aware of the fact that weeds and grass consume the food which ehould be devoted to the growing crop, but even when the land is very rich and the soil contains enough for both the crop and the weeds, the former soon succumbs, while the latter flourishes. This is because the soil cannot provide moisture for two crops at the same time. Every plant that grows takes up a certain proportion of moisture, which is pumped into the etalks and leaves, and the larger the growth and more numerous the plants, the more moißture required. Nor do all pump with the same rapidity, or with the same quantity. A strong, vigorous weed, with roots running in every direction, will seize on all moisture within its reach, to the detriment of every plant within the compass of its influence, and the result is that the weaker plants perish, because the struggle for moisture is more than they can endure, while the weeds, having crushed out opposition, usurp the ground and grow vigorously. Now, the farmer who wishes to economise in times of drought must aliow no moisture to be wasted on weeds. Nothing should grow where a plant is desired but the plant itself. Very often there is not enough moisture for a single plant, and the presence of two lessens the chance of both. Weeds, therefore, do not always destroy, plants by robbing them of food, but by depriving them of moisture, and the safest plan is to kill them as soon as they appear. A day may be too late. No wellregulated farm should have weeds upon it, and if they do appear make short work of them, and thug save the moisture. —Exchange. THINNING ROOT CROPS. It may seem sometimes a hard thing to do to pull up promising plants and throw them away, and a farmer is thus tempted to permit the roots to stand too close in the rows. But it is indispensable to success that the plants have plenty of room. Large roots weighing ten to fifteen pounds cannot be grown at less than sixteen iuches apart, and eighteen inches is better still. At this distance, with full rows, there will be 9800 roots to the acre, and if the roots average ten pounds, which is not at all difficult to reach, there will be forty-nine tons to the acre. At half the distance the roots may only average three pounds, making only little more than twenty-nine tons to the acre. The same applies to corn, for all plants need abundant feeding space for the roots, and must not be crowded much. —American Agriculturist. LARGE CROPS OF STRAWBERRIES. Mr Hale, an American strawberry growers who has large experience in raising strawberries, says that right methods of culture will bring from 400 to 500 bushels of strawberries to the acre in a single season, the requisites for success being a thorough preparation of the soil to Btart with, thorough draining, naturally or artificially, deep ploughing and subsoiling, perfect mellowing and liberal manuring. Productive sorts are of course all-essential. The Wilson and Crescent seedling strawberries are two of tbe most popular varieties grown in the States.