THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



371 



soils having a subsoil of clialk at a moderate dis- 

 tance. The irrigation system is not very exten- 

 sively practised in the valley of the Wandle, 

 although its waters (which bubble out of the base 

 of the chalk in so many directions) are well adapted 

 for the purpose. It is water containing the same 

 foreign substances as those which irrigate the noble 

 meads of the valleys of the Itchen, the Trent, the 

 Wiltshire Avon, and the Kennett. The water of 

 the Wandle, when examined by Professor Way, 

 was found to contain in an imperial gallon — 



Organic matter 1.74 



Silica 0.45 



Carbonate of lime 16.00 



Carbonate of magnesia 47 



Common salt 1 .38 



Sulphate of soda 0.98 



Sulphate of potash 0.33 



Total foreign substances 



21.35 



In this water, therefore — and the irrigators of 

 other districts will do well to ponder over the fact — 

 is to be found hardly any other substance of a fer- 

 tilizing nature for the grasses than carbonate of 

 lime. This salt is here held in solution chiefly by 

 the presence in the water of a considerable propor- 

 tion of carbonic acid gas. This is parted with by 

 the water when heated to boiling, and then nearly 

 12 grains per gallon out of 16 of its carbonate of 



lime is deposited. A similar eft'ect is produced by 

 exposmg the water in an open vessel to the action 

 of the sun's rays, and it is probable these pheno- 

 mena may in some degree account for the excel- 

 lence of the chaik formations' waters for the pur- 

 poses of grass irrigation. 



Many of these things attracted the attention of 

 Arthur Young, who often visited this valley. It 

 was at the farm of Waddon Court, more than half 

 a century since, that he was frequently the guest of 

 the eccentric John Parker, who there farmed more 

 than 2,000 acres. It was here that Young used to 

 meet John Marshall, Grose (the antiquarian), the 

 Boscawens, and a few other enlightened enquirers 

 after truth. The modern agriculturist who treads 

 over the same ground will proceed with far greater 

 advantages than those who, towards the close of 

 the last century, were thus accustomed to assemble 

 together. Such an explorer will have that advanced 

 science to aid him of which poor Arthur Young 

 was wont to so. feelingly lament his deficiency. 

 The visitor in our day will moreover, be cheered 

 on by observing, many things accomplished here 

 of which the Surrey farmers of the last century were 

 unacquainted. Such an enquirer will feel assured, 

 after viewing even in the Wandle valley many other 

 good efforts besides the steam plough, that there 

 are as yet no symptoms of agriculture having at- 

 tained its culminating point. 



WEEDS AND WEEDING. 



The season is at hand when every good farmer is 

 keeping a close over-sight upon the various weeds which 

 infest the crops of his farm, and the land he is fallowing. 

 It is a very important season to a cleanly farmer, and 

 he is often sorely perplexed as to the best means to 

 adopt for eradicating these pests to good cultivation. 

 IJis first aim will be to clean his fallows ; and the greatest 

 pests he finds there are root-weeds, i. e., twitch, docks, 

 foal-foot, buttercups, corabine, thistles, goose-grass or 

 pignut, toadpipe, horse-mint, &c., &c., &c. ; many of 

 these roots are very tenacious of life, and will require 

 his utmost attention and care to overcome their hardy 

 habits and to destroy them. Their varieties are very 

 numerous. The varieties in twitch alone have been stated 

 to reach seventy-three distinct specimens ; and the sorts 

 vary in the size and strength of their roots, from the 

 thickness of a tobacco-pipe to the fine thread-like sort, 

 a short and almost interminable kind. The larger sorts 

 may with tolerable facility be worked up to the surface, 

 in fallowing, by a requisite number of scarifyings and 

 harrowings, from whence they can easily be got off and 

 burnt ; but the finer varieties are with very great diffi- 

 culty managed. The more you plough, scuffle, and 

 harrrow, the more sets you make ; and as every knot is 

 a set, they soon strike in fine mould, and are so minute 



as to be almost undiscernible ; and unless the weather is 

 dry and sunny — indeed, so scorching hot as to injure 

 vegetation — this kind can scarcely be got rid of. To 

 effect this most desirable end, in fallowing the soils that 

 produce this sort, it is necessary to keep it constantly 

 stirred either by harrow or scarifier; the latter to he pre* 

 ferred. However, I am not speaking of the best mode 

 of fallowing at this time, but of the eradication of weeds. 

 The great end is to keep them on the surface in fallow 

 time, so that the sun's scorching heat may dry them up. 

 Docks, foal-foot, buttercups, thistles, pig-nut, horse- 

 mint, toadpipe or mare's-tail, as also combine and hog- 

 grass, have ea«h hardy roots, and require the same kind 

 j of management to effect their destruction. The safest 

 course, however, is to pick off most of these 

 larger roots for burning ; but the twitch may 

 be better got off by raking, or by the use of 

 the chain harrow. This is a comparatively new appli- 

 cation of this implement ; but in a dry season, and twitch 

 being abundant, it is probably the best appliance for 

 clearing the land we yet have had introduced. These 

 harrows act in a double capacity — by pulverizing the 

 surface, and at the same time rolling the twitch up into 

 irregular collections of various sizes, and quite as dead 

 as by the hand-rake. For rolling off the finer sorts of 



