Warning: Words on Weeds 



149 



paramount importance of preventing weeds 

 from seeding. Bad farming, indeed, is it that 

 will allow of the weeds to grow so long with- 

 out disturbance as to approach even remotely 

 the seeding stage; but if, by neglect, they 

 have been allowed to approach it, we would 

 strongly counsel the farmer to spare no 

 trouble nor expense to have the weeds pulled 

 up ; and when pulled up and collected, let 

 him be by no means satisfied with an attempt 

 to kill them by placing them in the dung 

 heap. Some may have seeded, and the pro- 

 cess of pulling up may have been so retarded 

 that all or the majority of them may have 

 seeded, and vain indeed is the hope that the 

 seeds, by being mixed up with the manure, 

 will have been killed. Even when apparently 

 well rotted — often indeed, when lime is mixed 

 in the heap — the vitality of the seeds remain 

 unimpaired ; and hence, when the manure is 

 spread over the land in the autumn or spring, 

 the seeds germinate, and of that field in which 

 it is placed it may be said that the latter end 

 is worse than the beginning. We remember 

 once having bought a lot of well-rotted dung, 

 so well rotted that all in it of vegetable growth 

 was apparently dead ; yet the growth of that 

 same pest, the poppy, which we have alluded 

 to, was in the following spring what the 

 Yankees call a "caution" to see. If before 

 this we had had any doubts as to the policy 

 of burning all weeds so as to get their value in 

 the form of ashes, we certainly had none ever 

 after. We should therefore unhesitatingly 

 counsel all weeds to be burnt : that is the 

 only true way to deal with them : every other 

 mode is but a compromise with principle, 

 and, like all compromises of this kind, will 

 only be a source of amioyance to him who 

 adopts it. By collecting and burning weeds 

 we turn the curse — which Scripture declares 

 them to be — into a blessing. It is, indeed, a 

 very singular circumstance, in connexion with 

 weeds, the amazing vitality of their seeds. 

 Corn and other seeds may, as they do, fail ; 

 rarely do the seeds of weeds fail to come up. 

 A lesson of some value may be learned from 

 this. 



We ha\e thus glanced at the first and the 

 third of the ways in which weed seeds are 



disseminated ; we have as briefly to point out 

 the second of these, namely, the mixing of 

 these seeds with the seeds of crops. Shame 

 it is to say that in some cases this mixing is 

 purposely and systematically done by fraudu- 

 lent seedsmen. The only way, therefore, to 

 meet this dastardly evil is to deal with first- 

 class men; and, further, if seed purchased 

 from others than of this stamp is doubtful in 

 value, to have it examined by an expert, and 

 if weed-seeds in quantity are detected, to ex 

 pose the seller. But in many cases the seeds 

 of weeds get mixed up with those of the 

 crop, not with design, but through careless- 

 ness. The only way to prevent this is care- 

 fully — in harvesting — to keep back all weeds, 

 and not to allow them to be mixed up with 

 the crop. This, of course, may be, as it has 

 often been, objected to as involving labour. 

 All that need to be said in reply to this is, 

 that if labour is grudged to gain a good end, 

 the business — nay, any business — had better 

 never be entered into ; nevertheless, there is 

 another way of looking at it — the cost of 

 carefully keeping out seeds of weeds from 

 crop seeds may be set against the loss sus- 

 tained in after seasons by the number of 

 weeds : we know pretty well how the balance 

 will be in some cases. On the other hand, 

 however, it may be said that farmers gene- 

 rally purchase their seed, and do not save it. 

 It must be saved, however, somewhere ; and 

 where saved it is worth while to save // only, 

 and not the seeds of weeds in addition. But 

 where seed is purchased for crops, it is no 

 less true that purchased along with it are the 

 seeds of weeds ; and very careless indeed are 

 many farmers as to the condition of the seed 

 they purchase — so careless that they act as 

 premium-givers to those criminally disposed, 

 by their carelessness actually inducing fraudu- 

 lent seedsmen to mix seeds of a bad kind 

 with them. All seed should be examined if 

 possible. The following is the result of one 

 or two examinations of this kind, from a 

 paper by Professor Buckman, who has de- 

 voted much time to the subject of weeds : — 

 In a pint of clover seed the Professor dis- 

 covered 7600 weed seeds : in a pint of cow- 

 grass seed, 12,000; in a pint of brand clover 



