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THE FARxMER'S MAGAZINE. 



twitch it is a very etfeelive implement, and worthy the 

 adoption of light-land farmers where such twitch 

 abounds. Phillips' poppy extirpator may also be ad- 

 vantageously used in lightening up this sort of twitch, 

 and freeing it from adhering soil. Howards and Ran- 

 somes have fitted these extirpating teeth to their horse- 

 rakes, with every prosp ect of great usefulness in working, 

 and of economy to the purchaser. A combined imple- 

 ment of this kind cannot fail to be advantageous, as it 

 is brought into such general requisition upon the farm 

 at different seasons. In the spring it is a poppy extir- 

 pator, in the summer a twitch and hay-rake, and in the 

 autumn a stubble -rake. 



I am well awa re that good clay-land farmers are apt 

 to scoff at twitch growers, and pronounce them to be 

 bad farmers; be this as it may, it is still the great bane 

 of every light-land farmer, and of not a few heavy- 

 lands men. Much has been written upon the best modes 

 of extirpating it, but to no great purpose ; and so long 

 as farmers will crop heavily (and why should they not ?) 

 they must expect a continuation of this pest. What 

 steam cultivation may effect I cannot say, but with our 

 present appliances I am without hope. The great thing 

 at present is to keep it in subjection, so as not to allow 

 it to injure any growing crop. The introduction of 

 steam culture will enable us to work our lands when 

 our horses are in full requisition in harvest and other 

 work, which is one great means to this desirable end ; 

 and much good will unquestionably arise, leading to 

 a further extension of our rotations in cropping : but 

 the pest still remains. I will, therefore, offer a few ob- 

 servations or suggestions as to the most effective mode 

 of subduing or suppressing it. The first attack should 

 commence immediately after the corn is cut. Wherever 

 there is a plant or bed of twitch, it should be broken up 

 either by fork or other more powerful implement. The 

 deeper the better, so as to reach the bottom of the roots: 

 the further spreading will thus be prevented. As soon 



as opportunity serves, and the season is suitable, it 

 should be worked to the surface and be picked off. 

 Another evcelleiit mode is to have all the green crops — 

 the fallow crops — looked over in the autumn, and have 

 every plant of twitch forked up and carried off: this is 

 taking the young plant before it has time to gain much 

 strength and spread ils roots, " nipping it in the bud." 

 The broad-clover crops ought also to be looked over, and 

 every stray plant should be extracted. Every hedge-row 

 should be cleansed during the winter, so that neither 

 roots nor ripened seeds should be permitted to propagate 

 their stock; finally, never let a plant of twitch stand 

 unmolested on any part of the farm where it can be got 

 at without damaging the crop. 



As preventives, never sow any grass seeds con- 

 taining the seeds of twitch ; this is one of the worst 

 and most pernicious things done by a farmer in the 

 whole course of his business, and is the great nursery of 

 twitch. A thorough determination to avoid this at all 

 hazards would ultimately cause the growers of rye -grass 

 seeds to be more cautious. Cheap grass seeds are 

 notorious intermixtures, and certain propagators of 

 twitch. Meadow-grass seeds abound in twitch seeds, 

 &c. Once in every summer at least, cleanse out or 

 "rode" every ditch, and do not permit the ditch-side 

 grasses to ripen their seeds, so that birds and stormy 

 winds may carry and deposit them over the lands 

 adjoining. Hedgerows should also be looked over in 

 July or August, and the detrimental grasses growing 

 here should be cut down. Constant laborious attention 

 will be ever needed to rid the farm of tins most 

 obnoxious enemy, and no opportunity should be lost 

 whenever the land is clear, and in a state to be worked. 

 It is by long courses of cropping, by delayed cultivation, 

 or in resting the soil, that much increase takes place. 

 Let every farmer pay due attention to these minor 

 points, and then he will have the satisfaction to cultivate 

 a cleanly farm. 



TtiE GROWTH OF BARLEY BY DIFFERENT MANURES CONTINUOUSLY ON 

 THE SAME LAND, AND THE POSITION OF THE CROP IN ROTATION. 



By J. B. Lawes, F.R.S., F.C.S., and Dr. J. H. Gilbert, F.CS. 



The original paper under this title, of which the fol- 

 lowing is an abstract, occupies nearly eighty pages of the 

 last number of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England (vol. xviii., part ii. pp. 454—531). 

 The results of extensive series of experiments are there 

 given, in much detail, in the tabular fo,rm. It is pro- 

 posed to give here only an outline of the plan of the ex- 

 periments, and an abstract of the conclusions arrived at, 

 with but little numerical detail. A main object of the in- 

 quiry was to ascertain the characteristic manuring re- 

 quired for full crops of barley as grown in our rotations. 

 The results of three separate sets of experiments are 

 brought to bear on the question ; and others, of an earlier 

 date (1845), had given results consistent with those now 

 more fully considered. In the first set of the newer 



series the crop was grown, after two previous corn-crops, 

 for six successive years on the same land with different 

 descriptions of manure, the same being applied to the 

 same plot each year. One or two plots were always 

 without manure, one with farm-yard manure, some with 

 purely mineral manures, some with ammoniacal salts 

 alone, some with nitrate of soda alone, some with rape- 

 cake alone, and some with mixtures of both the mineral 

 and nitrogenous manures ; in all, making about twenty 

 experiments each year. In a second field, barley was 

 grown for three years in succession, without manure, 

 after ten successive crops of turnips, which on some of 

 the plots had had no manure, on others mineral ma- 

 nures alone, on others mineral and nitrogenous manures, 

 and so on. In a third field, barley was grown experi- 



