148 



TJic Cojiutry Gentleman'' s Magazine 



A good crop of rape will yield as much 

 food as an ordinary crop of turnips. The 

 crop may also be cut and given to cattle 

 fed in the yards, and, altogether, the poor 

 prospects we have of a crop of turnips 

 renders the value of rape as a substitute, 

 a matter desening serious and immediate 

 consideration, for unless steps are taken to 



grow a crop of this kind it will be a very 

 difficult matter to provide spring keep. We 

 take it for granted, of course, that by-and-bye 

 we shall have sufficient rain to moisten the 

 ground, for unless such is the case, rape seed 

 will not start any more than the turnip seed 

 which is lying dormant, and, we fear, some- 

 thing like kiln-dried in the soil. 



WARNING WORDS ON WEEDS. 



" /^^NE year's seeding," says the proverb, 

 V^y " is seven years' weeding." Those, 

 therefore, if this is true, know what they have 

 to expect if this year they allow the seeding — 

 the labour of the weeding, which their worst 

 wishers may well wish them to have, so diffi- 

 cult is it to perform. There is nothing per- 

 haps so unmistakeably suggestive than the 

 fact too well known to farmers, that while crops 

 will be poor with all the pains that patient 

 care bestows upon them, weeds will revel in 

 abundance despite all attempts to get rid of 

 them. In view of this it has been said, and 

 there is something very suggestive in the 

 statement, that weeds have been sent as a 

 beneficent arrangement in order to make men 

 industrious ; and to exercise a reflex influence 

 of a positively beneficial kind, inasmuch that 

 the more the weeds are eradicated the finer 

 will be the crops, which otherwise they would 

 destroy. For it is worthy of note, that the 

 mere getting rid of weeds exercises a most 

 healthy influence upon the plants near which 

 they grow, as the soil is stirred about them, 

 and the atmospheric influences are allowed to 

 act upon the crops. As the present period 

 is that at which the weeds are most rampant, 

 and at which the preventive measures against 

 their increase may be in a great measure 

 carried out, a few remarks on the subject may 

 be useful now. We have spoken of the evils 

 arising from one year's seeding ; but there are 

 some weeds which propagate chiefly by their 

 roots, others again by their seeds. We shall 

 consider the latter kind first. The seeds of 

 weeds are distributed generally in one of 



three ways ; first, by the seeds being naturally 

 distributed, either dropping from the plants, 

 or being scattered abroad by the winds ; 

 secondly, by being mixed up with the seeds of 

 crops ; and, thirdly, by the plants with ripe 

 seeds having been put into the manure-heap, 

 and spread on the land with the manure in 

 autumn or sj^ring. As to the first of these, 

 some notion may be had as to the rapidity 

 with which weeds may be propagated if we 

 state briefly here the number of seeds which 

 each plant of our best known weeds bear. 

 Thus the corn cockle {agrostemina git/iago) 

 bears on an average 7 flowers, and each 

 flower 370 seeds, or 2599 seeds in all. The 

 chickweed {stellaria media) has 50 flowers, 

 each flower 10 seeds, or 500 seeds in all. 

 The charlock {sinapis ai-vetisis) has 400 

 flowers, and each flower 10 seeds, or 4000 

 seeds in each plant. The groundsel (senecio 

 vulgaris) has 130 flowers, and 50 seeds in 

 each plant, or 6500 seeds in all. But there 

 are weeds which bear more largely than even 

 those named, bad as they are. Thus the 

 corn sow thistle {sonchns arvensis) has 190 

 flowers, and each 190 seeds, or giving a pro- 

 duct of 19,000 seeds for each plant. But 

 this is far exceeded by the red poppy (the 

 " rose-a-ruby " of our forefathers), that scourge 

 of many a field, so abundant indeed in some 

 that the flowers far exceed apparently the 

 jDlants, and give a fiery red to the whole sur- 

 face. Each plant of this terrible weed {pa- 

 paver rhoeus) bears 100 flowers, and each 

 flower 500 seeds, or in the whole 50,000 

 seeds. Enough has been given to shew the 



