306 WEEDS OF AGRICULTURE. 



[Nothing is easier got rid Of than the seeds of cockle, it 

 the proper means are had recourse to. Brass-wire sieves are 

 in common use for sifting small seeds and dust out of wheat, 

 barley, Sec. ; but these sieves are too closely woven to allow 

 the seeds of cockle to pass. A cockle sieve is therefore 

 necessary, and will also be found, for other purposes, very 

 useful in a barn. The common brass-wire sieves are woven, 

 we believe, on the plan of nine wires to the inch, to discharge 

 charlock and such sized seeds; but the cockle sieve should 

 have but seven wires within the inch, and should be made of 

 somewhat stronger wire. It is a most useful implement. 

 — Ed.] 



4. MELILOT. Trijolium melilotus officinale ; melilotus 

 officinalis; melilotus officinale of authors. Common 

 Melilot -clover. Legumes racemed, naked, two-seeded, 

 wrinkled, acute ; stem erect. 



This is an annual plant, growing with an upright stem, 

 about two feet high, branched and furrowed. The capsules 

 containing the seed are very tough and wrmkled, growing 

 in bunches ; each capsule is generally one-seeded, sometimes 

 two, but threshing does not dislodge them ; so that, in 

 samples of wheat, the wrinkled capsule is called the 

 seed ; and these are easiest separated by sifting the corn 

 in shallow sieves, to raise the pods to the surface to be 

 picked off. 



This is, of all others, one of the most pernicious seeds in 

 wheat, a few communicating a very strong smell to the flour. 

 The plant is addicted to stiff soils, and often grows on ditch 

 banks in the fences : it blossoms yellow. It is very palatable 

 food to all sorts of cattle, and has a grateful odour when cut 

 down and dried. Nevertheless, as a weed in arable land it 

 cannot be too much guarded against, and ought never to be 

 sown with seed corn. Also, it should be sedulously rooted 

 up by weeding in spring ; for where it has once got in the 

 land, it propagates itself by scattering many seeds before 

 the corn is ripe. Hence wheat, on land so infested, should 



