Weeds Guardians of the Soil by Joseph A. Cocannouer Author of Trampling Out the Vintage The Devin-Adair Company Old Greenwich • Connecticut Copyright, 1950, by The Devin-Adair Company. Manufactured in the United States of America. Reprinted, 1980 Contents 1. Weeds and Youth 2. Weeds and Weeds 3. Weeds and the Soil World 4. The Fertility Chain and Soil Balance 5. Plant Roots 6. Weeds as Mother Crops 7. Weeds in the Rotation 8. Weeds and Pasture Improvement 9. Weeds in the Compost 10. Weeds as Food 11. Weeds and Wildlife 12. Sponge Structure versus Dams 13. Here and Yon 14. Nature's Togetherness Law Publisher's Preface SO FAR as we are able to determine this is the first book to be written in praise of weeds. Many are the books which treat weeds as pests, and each season sees an advance in anti-weed campaigns and techniques; a host of chemicals, mechanical eradicators and even flame throwers are making life increasingly hard for nature's greatest and most widely dispersed group of plants -- the plants which stand condemned because they are deemed "out-of-place." That the ordinary garden and roadside weed might have a vital function in the scheme of things and be of inestimable value to mankind seems not to have occurred to most agriculturists, whether in the classroom, the departments of agriculture or on the farm. The author of this book has been teaching conservation and biology for close to fifty years. But he has been a student as well and a keen field man who has specialized in the ways of weeds, not only in his home state of Oklahoma where he has spent much time learning from the Indians, but in other parts of the world -- in Europe, India and the Philippines, particularly. According to Joseph Cocannouer, weeds -- the common ragweeds, pigweeds, pusleys and nettles, to mention four -- perform the following valuable services among others: 1. They bring minerals, especially those which have been depleted, up from the subsoil to the topsoil and make them available to crops. This is particularly important with regard to trace elements. 2.When used in crop rotation they break up hardpans and allow subsequent crop roots to feed deeply. 3. They fiberize and condition the soil and provide a good environment for the minute but important animal and plant .life that make any soil productive. 4. They are good indicators of soil condition, both as to variety of weed present and to condition of the individual plant. Certain weeds appear when certain deficiencies occur. 5. Weeds are deep divers and feeders and through soil capillarity they enable the less hardy, surface feeding crops to withstand drought better than the crop alone could. 6. As companion crops they enable our domesticated plants to get their roots to otherwise unavailable food. 7. Weeds store up minerals and nutrients that would be washed, blown or leached away from bare ground and keep them readily available. 8. Weeds make good eating -- for man as well as for livestock. The publisher can vouch for the superiority of lamb's quarter -- a favorite of the author -- over any other domestic form of spinach or cooked greens. No, Professor Cocannouer does not believe that weeds should be allowed to go rampant and take over our farms and gardens. The function of this book, a pioneering work, is to demonstrate how the controlled use of weeds can be sound ecology, good conservation and a boon to the average farmer or gardener. D. A. G. 1. Weeds and Youth DURING my early boyhood years on the farm, weeds spelled misery. At the first break of spring, weeds carpeted the land -- yesterday drab; today dense green everywhere. And mother saw every weed as a separate, individual enemy with which we must join battle. "Bring the hoes from the loft and file them right away, boys!" I can hear her voice now, coming out of the long ago. "We simply mustn't let the pesky things get ahead of us!" I wonder how many weed hoes I have filed in my dreams! Our little Kansas farm, even at that period, was in sore need of what controlled weeds could have done for it. But weed superstition reigned then as it reigns today. We hated all weeds in all situations because we hadn't learned to interpret some of the simplest laws by which Nature maintains the productiveness of land. Even during those trying years when I could see nothing good in weeds save as potherbs or as feed for hogs, I always liked to pull or hoe weeds for Sol Benson. Sol was a successful farmer who owned considerable land -- and who didn't treat me as a kid as did so many other farmers. Sol also usually gave me a few cents extra when he paid me off. A certain day in Sol Benson's cornfield started me on a research journey that has spanned a half century. I happened to be hoeing in one of Sol's best fields, which I had contracted to clean of weeds for a definite sum. The corn was tree tall and the morning promised a scorching day. This particular field, fortunately for my feet, was quite solidly carpeted with purslane -- the dirt where the sun reached it was hot. "Pusley" was then a much more common weed in Kansas cornfields than it is now. (When I not long ago queried a young farmer why that was so, his reply was characteristic: "Good cultivatin' machinery and weed sprays -- we're gettin' the weeds licked!" I didn't say what I thought then. His fields spoke for me.) I was soon so absorbed in those weeds in Sol Benson's field that I forgot everything except to keep my toes away from the edge of the hoe. With great spreads of pusley rolling up over my feet, my battered straw hat pushed back on my head and the sweat trickling down my face -- "Hold on there!" The voice was right behind me. I turned -- and there was Sol Benson grinning at me. Then Sol very quickly seemed to forget that I was present. Very seriously he started to examine the roots of a large pusley plant he had brought with him. It wasn't one of the plants I had hoed up, for it carried a husky set of roots. Sol was fingering the pusley roots thoughtfully. I jerked my hoe loose and walked closer to him, wondering what there was about that pusley plant that made it so interesting. Sol lifted his head quick-like then, same as he always did when he was going to say something important. "Joe," he said; "Joe, I been watchin' this pusley weed in my fields for a long time, and I've come to the conclusion that it not only don't do any harm, but it does good! This thing of considerin' all weeds as bad is nonsensical. Lot of guessin' without knowin', way I look at it. So I aim to do some guessin' of my own -- we're goin' to stop cuttin' pusley out of my corn!" I stared at Sol Benson for a long moment, completely dazed. "But -- but pusley is weeds!" I finally managed to gulp. "Weeds is allers bad in fields where crops is growin' -- " "That's only what people think!" Sol interrupted me sharply. "I'm convinced we been thinkin' wrong about weeds. Look here -- " he showed me some broken corn roots scattered among the pusley roots. "Know what that means? It means that the pusley roots are openin' up the dirt for the corn roots, so the corn can go deeper into the ground and get more to eat. Now come with me and I'll show you somethin' else -- " Sol went striding away through the corn and I trotted along behind him, still not sure he wasn't having a fit. Of all the silly ideas -- pusley makin' a road so the corn roots could go deeper into the ground! When we came to a part of the field where there was almost no pusley, Sol stopped and began pointing out the corn to me. "See the difference?" he said. "Not near as good as where the weeds are thick back there. Same kind of dirt, too. Somethin' is makin' a difference in that corn, and I figure it's the pusley. It's like that in all my fields. Where the pusley is thickest I get my best corn. Most farmers will say the corn is doin' good in spite of the pusley. That ain't it at all! The pusley is helpin' the corn to grow better." I could see a difference in the corn all right, but the very idea of the pusley being responsible for that difference! "Sol, it jist must be somethin' else!" I told him courageously. "I know yer a good farmer and all; but nobody thinks that weeds is good for anything but hog feed and greens -- ' "I know they don't! Remember, people used to believe the world was flat -- " "But that was 'cause people used to be ignorant and superstitious-like - - " And right then something hit my brain a terrible wallop. People had been ignorant and superstitious and all, about the shape of the earth. Could it be that people were superstitious about weeds, too? Somebody had to discover that the earth isn't flat. And Sol Benson was smart enough for most anything -- even smart enough to discover that pusley could be helpful to corn! Sol Benson has long since departed from the earthly scene. His name has been forgotten save by a few. The pusley of those yesteryears is also gone -- most of the present soil on that Kansas farm of my boyhood will not support it. But, starting with Sol Benson's cornfield, I can see a winding trail; a dim trail at first, winding its way persistently into the years, traversing many parts of my own country and many foreign lands. Along this trail came soil studies in numerous regions of Asia, with its ancient agriculture; the desert lands of Africa; the semi-wild man and his crude farming; Europe offering the best in modern soil science. And with "weeds" ever a major part of every picture or episode where soil fertility entered in. During much of my youth my weed trail was beset with skepticism and doubt, despite my confidence in Sol Benson's wisdom as a farmer. Weeds helpful to the crop with which they were growing -- all evidence seemed against the idea. Then there were the teachings of my mother. Those would not give way until I had undeniable proof that her concept of weeds was wrong. As I grew older, support of Sol Benson's conclusions poured in upon me, often from the most unexpected sources. Weeds could be friends of the land! Day by day this evidence drove me deeper into the study of Nature's laws which supported the evidence: the laws pertaining to the constructive relationship ever existing between soil and deep- feeding herbaceous plants. Now as I look back across those years, I am able to evaluate more scientifically my varied sources of information: sound knowledge gleaned from a Pawnee Indian in his wigwam; a Chinaman fighting for survival on a small area of land and employing weeds as his fertilizer; from still wider acquaintance with the jungle man and his "mother weeds" on his primitive farm -- and coming close to understanding the science back of his procedures; or from some progressive American or European farmer who had discovered weed values and who was ready to support his findings with proof. Then, too, there came further penetration into the natural laws of soil fertility; personal experiments -- all have convinced me that Sol Benson was a soil scientist who knew his pusley and its value in correct land management. Thus the chapters which follow. 2. Weeds and Weeds "WEED: any plant growing out of place." But who or what is going to decide when a plant is out of place? Mustard going to seed in a field of ripening wheat is certainly out of place, as are weeds that shoot up like a magic green carpet in a field of young sugar beets. But if a plant is strengthening the soil in a given location, according to the laws of Nature, it is not out of place as a fundamental in maintaining land productiveness. Some plants always seem to be harmful: poison ivy, for instance, and puncture weed and dodder -- and many others. Some can be harmful under certain conditions: pigweeds growing so thickly that they smother both themselves and the domestic crop. Yet, there are situations a plenty where the wild plant is beneficial both to the soil and the domestic crop with which it may be growing. An example of this is pigweeds in a heavy-soil potato field, the weeds spaced far enough apart to permit strong root development without crowding the potatoes; or a combination of pigweeds and lamb's quarter and sow thistles, scattered thinly in a tomato garden or an onion patch -- or even in a cornfield. In such cases the weeds can become valuable "mother weeds" instead of pests. In southeast Asia there is a wild plant that spreads in tangled growth along the edges of the fields of the native farmers, often creeping far out into the fields. No other wild plants in that region equal this one in spreading vigor. Though the Malays relish the young pods, farmers insist that it is a bad weed, since they must labor to keep it from growing too near their rice and vegetables. That bad weed in Malaya is the fore-parent of our American cowpeas. When I questioned the Malay farmers, they admitted they usually harvested their best crops near where the payaap was growing. Even so, in their estimation it was a harmful weed. Nature may at times compel us to discover the value of her wild plants; her weeds. In pre-colonial times a group of explorers, after navigating the Amazon for a lengthy period, decided to strike overland to a point towards which they were heading, hoping thereby to save weeks of time. The little band became lost in the jungles. After many days of wandering, the men finally came upon a seemingly endless growth of vines bearing great quantities of pods filled with plump seeds that looked temptingly edible. But the explorers had already learned jungle caution. After considerable mental struggle, they decided to cast lots in order to choose a victim, who should risk his life by eating these habichuelas. Thus were our most popular beans discovered. Not only are these beans a staple article of food in many