28o 



The Country Gentkmaiis Magazine 



I. Whatever tends to the fertiUty of the 

 crop, be it wheat, or beans — and deep plough- 

 ing usually does so — will also encourage the 

 growth of the oat ; and inasmuch as the seeds 

 of this pest ripen and are sown before the pro- 

 per crop is gathered, ample provision is made 

 for its growth on a future occasion. 



We recollect once going with a rector over 

 some glebe lands, which were let out in small 

 holdings, wlien he stopped at a patch of oats 

 all of which had shed their seed, upon which 

 the worthy clergyman was so vexed with the 

 tenant for neglecting to gather his crop that 

 he threatened to take the land from him. 

 However we were obliged to tell him that 

 the crop was wheat which had been smothered 

 out by the wild oats and was still unripe. 

 This will give the reader a notion of how this 

 pest sometimes prevails. 



It will be seen from our calculations how 

 freely this plant seeds, and as the seeds are 

 usually all fertile, there can be no doubt as 

 to how the weed is constantly being repro- 

 duced ; nor is there reason to suppose that 

 the soil to any depth is charged with seeds 

 that have lain dormant for any great length 

 of time. 



Still we have seen it come up in such quan- 

 tity as at first to lead to the supposition in 

 some farmers' minds that " the earth had 

 bred it." In a crop of beans we once saw it 

 so thick as to have excited the curiosity of all 

 the farmers near, and upon inquiry it was 

 found that the manure which had been em- 



ployed for the beans consisted of — besides 

 common dung — the sweepings of the yards, 

 and as the wheat crop of the farm was always 

 affected by the v/ild oat, and no cavings or 

 chaff were burnt, its spread in the manure is 

 sufficiently accounted for. 



2. The above remarks point most clearly 

 to the methods to be adopted in getting rid 

 of the pest we have been describing — 

 Never sow its seed in Manures. 

 If it come up never let it ripen seed. 

 Crops in which it occurs should be hoed ; 

 this will destroy it when between the rows, 

 and if it cannot be otherwise removed in the 

 rows handpicking will be advisable. We 

 had this year sown our wheat in rows, lo 

 inches apart, for the purpose of horse-hoeing, 

 but the constant rains of spring made hoeing 

 impossible. Still, this may be well effected 

 in most seasons. 



Our wheat crop is very good, but as we 

 have seen here and there a wild oat plant 

 lifting its head about the wheat, we have 

 handpicked it before the ripening of its seeds ; 

 by this means we feel sure that we shall 

 scotch our enemy for some time, and by 

 attending to the dicta as above we hope soon 

 to eradicate it altogether. But the often- 

 quoted maxim 



" One year's seeding 

 Is seven years' weeding," 



must here be borne in mind, as we are even 

 now suffering for the aforetime seeding of 

 this weed. 



