July B, 1S6& ] 



JOOBNAL OF HOaTlCULTUQB AND COTTAGE GAKDENBB. 



Bl 



MSooiatesbipB on the ISlh. Those requiring information on 

 the snbjeot may obtain it by applying to Mr. Janaea Iliohards, 

 Assistant Sacretai^, Rjyal Hurtioulturol Society, Soutli Kun- 

 sington. 



INSECTS AND WEEDS. 



Few have been used to country life who have not often heard 

 BOmetliing like the following — "It's a sharpish morning!'' 

 the farmer says, rubbing his hands in the vain endeavour to 

 turn his fingers any other odour bat blue ; " but it's very 

 healthy, and it will kill all the grubs and weeds." Now, the 

 ideas meant to be conveyed by such observations as these are so 

 generally entertained that one has, perhaps, never heard a dis- 

 sentient remark about them ; and it is hence concluded by 

 everybody that a hard winter is destrnotive to insects and weeds, 

 and, indeed, that "King Frost" destroys more grubs than 

 hoFts of swallows, whilst he is duly honoured as "Winter the 

 Weeder." Bat widely spread as are these ideas, I take upon 

 myself to dissent from them, in the belief that my opinion will 

 be shared by others upon due observation. 



With regard to both insects and weeds, we must take into 

 oonsideraiiou that those here named are indigenous, and that 

 they are among our wild native plants just because they are 

 endowed with powers to resist the cold and frost to which in 

 winter they are liable to be subjected. Look at the snug retreats 

 of insects in the bark of trees, in the moss of the wall, or the 

 leafy bank ; see how they are further protected by swathings 

 of cottony material, by thick varnished cases, or nicely con- 

 straoted houses ; and above all, inquire into the immense 

 fecundity of most species, and we shall be aware that this vast 

 superabundance is made for the due continuance of the species, 

 in Bpite of atmospheric action, which with insects, as with 

 humanity, exerts a decided influence. Yet the world would soon 

 te overstocked with insect life, were it not that insects are kept 

 in check by insectivorous creatures of various kinds, amongst 

 which none will be found such active insect-destroyers as birds. 

 A few weeks of frost may aid in the destruction of some insects, 

 and especially in the larva state ; but then, though so tightly 

 bound up in the frozen earth, it must be borne in mind that 

 they are wonderfully well prepared for the event ; and it must 

 be recollected that birds during all this time must starve, or, 

 what is as bad for our crops, they must attack the buds, roots, 

 and softer parts of our cultivated plants for the means of a 

 seanty subsistence. Under these conditions it is no wonder 

 after all that even those farmer friends who have been so pleased 

 with a hard winter " for killing the grubs," should wonder in 

 the following summer " how there can be so many insects after 

 the cold winter we had." For myself, I view this as a natural 

 consequence ; and observation has seemed to me to verify the 

 conclusion that severe winters are succeeded by summers pro- 

 lific in both insects and weeds. 



A very little inquiry will be sufficient to show that the same 

 evidence is afforded by the growth of plants, and more especially 

 of those we term weeds. These for the present purpose may 

 be very conveniently divided as follows : — 



1. Perennials, or those in which the stem or rootstock is pertQ.ancnt. 



2. Biennials, or those in which the plant is prepared in one year, and 

 the seed griWQ in the following. 



S. AQQualg, in which the seed is sawn in autmna, but its germination 

 and the re-seeding oconpy the following year. 



On reviewing the Perennials, we shall see that we ought to 

 have but few weeds belonging to this division, if we except the 

 shrubs of various kinds which find their way into hedgerows to 

 the detriment of the Quicks, such as — 



Vibornum opnlus, Oueldor Rose 

 Rosa and Rnbus, all species grow- 

 ing in hedges. 



Sambncas nigra, Elder 

 Vibumam lantana. Wayfaring 

 Tree 



Of weeds with perennial rootstocks we have such as — 



Triticura repens. Coach Grass 

 Convol vulas arvensis, Corn Bind- 

 weed 



Convolvalus sepium, Hedge Bind- 

 weed 

 Carduas arvensis, Com Thistle 

 These form a good example of a class of weeds, the rootstocks 

 of which are all the better protected from being beneath the 

 surface, for frost, instead of being injurious to them, forms a 

 pellicle above them, and thus provides far their greater safety. 

 As regards the second set of weeds, it may be said of them, 

 as of insects — they live in our climate by virtue of their adap- 

 tation to it ; and if we duly study the plants in the list which 

 I give iu the next column, we shall see that a hard winter is 

 more favourable to their full second year's development. 

 Plants of this kind are either developed fi-om seeds which. 



falling in tbo autumn, remain until spring without germinating 

 and BO occupy one season in developing a plant from which the 

 seed is produced iu tho following year ; or the seed when sown 

 iu autumn may at once germinate, and the plant and seed 

 development each occupy a year afterwards ; whilst some may 

 in the vear the seed is sown make sufficient progress to form 

 the seeds the next year. This, however, depends to a great 

 extent upon tho season, as biennials, which occasionally take 

 parts of three years for growth and re-seeding when the weather 

 is severe in winter, produce seed tho first year aftev sowing il 

 tho weather is mild. 



Rannncalns repens. Creeping 



Crowfoot 

 Papavor hybridum. Smooth-head- 

 ed Poppy 

 Papavcr rha?aa, red Poppy 

 Coninni maculatnm, Hemlock, 

 and others of the same family 

 Knantia arvensis, Field Scabious 

 Soocbus arvensi8,Corn Sowthislle 

 fo^ichue olcraceus, common Sow 

 thistle 



Leontodon taraxacum, DandclioQ 

 Carduue natana, Mask and ether 



Thistles 

 Centaurea nigra, BlaclE Knap- 

 weed 

 Centaurett scabioso, Great Ecap- 



weed 

 Plantogo media. Plantain 

 Rumex pratcuuiij, Ueaiiow and 

 other Ducks 



On examining these plants we shall find them all so well 

 prepared for winter, that unless they have severe weather to 

 arrest their growth and make them strong and hardy, they will 

 grow up weakly and attenuated, and produce as little seed as 

 would non-transplanted Cabbages and Lettuces in garden cul- 

 ture. Hardiness and consequent after-size are induced by the 

 autumn sowing, and the retardmg process is further aided by 

 transplantation. No fact, then, is better established than this 

 — that supposing a few weeds of biennial growth to be destroyed 

 by winter, yet the effect of cold and frost is to harden the rest, 

 and thus to make them far more productive of seed than they 

 would be after milder weather ; so that in reality, when we see 

 iu midwinter examples of Sjwthistles and Docks wilh just a 

 small living central bud hidden in a mass of dead leaves, and 

 cringing to tho very ground as though afraid of the biting 

 blast, we must not conclude that these have been destroyed by 

 frost ; on the contrary, their very stunted growth is an evidence 

 of their well-being, and such specimens will assuredly produce 

 well at seed time. 



Annual weeds are by far the most troublesome, as they grow 

 up so quickly, and frequently so abundantly with every crop, 

 that they usually smother the young plants unless soon re- 

 moved. Who has not seen this in the case of roots, where it 

 is an evidence of the farmer having allowed their parents to 

 seed in the soil with a previous crop ? Many of this section of 

 weeds do not take the whole of the year for the production of 

 their seed, but seed more than once ; others, again, require 

 but a few weeks for their development, and so come up with an 

 early-sown spring or summer crop indifferently. Of course, 

 seeing the largo production of seeds in most of the annual 

 species of weeds, we shall be prepared for many of them being 

 destroyed ; but cold or frost should not be considered as de- 

 structive to them, except to a limited extent, as annual weeds 

 are, if possible, better adapted than any other for withstanding 

 the wiliest vicissitudes which our soil and climate can offer; 

 and though it is true that different soils possess different species 

 of annual weeds, yet there are some that are common through- 

 out the country, from John o' Groil's to the Land's End. 

 Amongst the causes, however, whioh tend to lessen weeds 1 

 may mention the following : — 



Their seeds may be scattered by high winds to places un- 

 congenial for them. Numberless seeds are destroyed by insects, 

 many species of which partly live upon them. 



By far the greatest destruction of the seeds of weeds that 

 takes place is due to such birds as the finches. We all know 

 what large quantities of seeds are ealen by some of our bird 

 pets, and as with them the seed is almost reduced to powder 

 by their active little mandibles, birds of this kind really de- 

 stroy the seeds of weeds in the most perfect manner. Many 

 of us have been before now amused in watching a piping bull- 

 finch enjjjing his cruciferous seeds, and when I say that be- 

 8 des these his daily tl.owance of GrounJsel has about a Lxm- 

 dred heads of flowers, each of whioh may perfect as many as 

 fifty seeds, we have 100 x 50 = 5000 seeds of a pernioious 

 weed daily destroyed by a single bird, and this by no means 

 represents all his weed fooJ, still less does it give us more than 

 a faint idea of the numbers of weeds destroyed by birds of 

 this kind in the wild state. 



This amount of good — and I maintain that our small birds 

 are amongst the farmer's foremost weeders aud best friends — 

 is interfered with by winter. Frost binds up the soattereii 



