442 



The Country Gentleman's Magazine 



4. Bulboid rooted crops, turnips, &c. ; tap 

 rooted crops, carrots, &c. (with this may be 

 included cabbages). 



5. Economic plants, as flax, hemp, &c. 



CEREAL GRASSES. 



These, when destined for seed, should be 

 selected on account of the evenness of the 

 crop, and trueness to variety, as each variety 

 of corn, of whatever kind, will present great 

 differences as to periods of ripening, and 

 •quantity and quality of the crop to be de- 

 rived from it, according to the diff"erences of 

 soil it may have to contend with. Oats are 

 seldom true to sort, for, as I have shewn by 

 experiment, these are derivative plants, and 

 are very readily acted upon by different cir- 

 cumstances — the differences of geology in a 

 single field, as one part of clay and another 

 part sand — may result in a crop of corn widely 

 differing in specific gravity, a fact tested by 

 the weight per bushel, and in the one thetc 

 may be elements of declension to wild cotj- 

 ditions, and in the other a further departure 

 from the wild original. Hence, therefore, to 

 mix these two samples in crop seed tends 

 "much to that unevenness which one some- 

 times observes, both as regards the time of 

 ripening and the resultant grain, and which 

 is sure to be prejudicial to the quantity as 

 well as quality of the crop, as, if the one waits 

 until the whole be ripe, the early ripened 

 •examples shed their best and heaviest grain. 

 If cut before the later ones are ripened there 

 ■will be a mixture of much light grain, and 

 hence a deficiency of weight per bushel. Of 

 course, in harvesting grain for seed, care 

 must be taken that it shall not heat in the 

 rick, as " mow burnt " grain is uneven in its 

 powers of germination according to the 

 amount of heat to which it has been sub- 

 jected; and though it is astonishing how 

 much grain may sometimes be heated and 

 yet germinate, nevertheless it will mostly be 

 found that under the most favourable con- 

 ditions samples of this kind will result in a 

 sickly crop, and great deficiency both in 

 quantity and quality, and its specific gravity 

 will be much lessened. In grain seed we 

 have seldom much to complain of as regards 

 weed admixture, as seeds of weeds are mostly 



smaller and lighter- than those of any kind of 

 grain, and consequently separated in winnow- 

 ing. However, we occasionally meet with 

 ' dirty " grain seed. A sample of wheat sub- 

 mitted to my examination not long since, 

 had as many as 1000 seeds in a bushel 

 of the Ratiimculiis arveiisis (corn crowfoot), a 

 weed of the most pernicious description, very 

 common to poor clay lands, and those in the 

 midland counties of England — on the Lias 

 clays especially — called "hunger weed." 

 Another of a similar form is not unfrequent 

 in grain seed, namely Cynoglossum officmale, 

 a weed which affects limestone, but as it is 

 one of biennial habit its presence argues such 

 very careless and dirty farming, that one 

 would be fully justified in refusing to pur- 

 chase seed at all from such a source. 



FODDER GRASSES. 



The seeds of these are so small and weedy, 

 and artificial pasture is so little attended to, 

 that seeds of these are indeed the commonest 

 source of weed reproduction ; and from want 

 of attention to pure seeds, this rotation 

 usually provides enough weeding for employ- 

 ment in every succeeding crop. The following 

 table will put it in a clearer light : — 



Seed samples. 



Canary grass . . . 

 Perennial ryegrass . 



Do 



Do. (Pacey's) . . . 

 Italian ryegrass . . 



Do. imported (A.) 



Do. Do. (B.) . 

 Do. with hop trefoil "J 



and Broad clover K 



mixed (Seeds) . J 

 Yellow oak - like 



grass [Avena fla- 



vescens) . 

 Meadow foxtail 1 



{Alopecurus pra- K 



tcnsis) .... J 

 Cock-foot {Dacty- \ 



lis glomcrata) . \ 

 Hard fescue (Fes- 1 



iuca duriuscula) ) 

 Oak - like grass "j 



{Arrhenatherum K 



avenaceum) . . J 

 Sheep's fescue(jFV,f- ) 



tuca ovina) . . ) 

 Mi.xed grasses (A.) . 

 Do. Do. (B.) . 



O w O- 



S20 



800 



3200 



1200 



3200 



7040 



1600 



4880 



560 



1320 



9200 

 4600 



800 



2620 



3840 

 8400 



Remarks on principal 

 contents, &c. 



i/8th \oY>,Holcuslanatus,8c.c. 

 Lop (Bromus mollis), &c. 



Fieldmadder, sandworts, &c. 

 ( Lop, soft grass, and 

 ( creeping ranunculus. 



Lop, sofi grass, &c. 



f Lop, herardin, ranun- 

 ( cuius, plantain, &c. 



Mostly a species of rush. 



Slender foxtail, lop, &c. 



Holcus lanatus, Arrhena , 

 //zer»w.,nearlyhalfweed . 



Lop, holcus, &c. 

 Mostly lop. 



Medick, &c. 



Plantain, &c. 

 Ranunculus, holcus, &c. 



