Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry By Thomas Tusser, 1573

----------

----------

----------

Hemp As A Weed Eradicator

Experiments have been conducted by the Agronomy department on the value of hemp as a means of eradicating noxious weeds. On the state prison farm at Waupun, a field of 3.5 acres, infested with quack grass and Canada thistles, was treated two years ago. This field was heavily manured and plowed in July, being harrowed weekly and the loose roots removed with a hay rake. The following spring it was sown to hemp at the rate of one bushel per acre, and a yield of over 2100 pounds of fibre per acre, valued at $118, secured. This treatment resulted in complete destruction of thistles, and nearly complete annihilation of quack grass. As a result this year over 125 acres of hemp have been sown on the quack and thistle infested lands surrounding Waupun. In all cases, except where sowing was made too late and growth was therefore checked by the drought, marketable hemp has been produced. In many instances, this land was not previously summer fallowed, nevertheless the growth of these noxious weeds was seriously checked. ���Where previous summer fallowing is practiced, this treatment appears efficacious in the destruction of these weeds. The fact that land can be used for the growth of a money crop during the process of eradication makes the method the more valuable.