308 WEEDS OF AGRICULTURE. 



florets about three, shorter than the calyx ; bristly at 

 the base, with an oblique scar, all awned. 



This weed used to abound on stiff clays, in open fields : the 

 fallows were generally free from it, and only brought the 

 land, about Michaelmas time, in moderate condition for this 

 weed to grow and come up with the wheat. Accordingly 

 such abundance of it would come, that at harvest the whole 

 crop would appear to be wild oats. I once knew a farmer, 

 who, in thrashing out a stack of wheat, dressed out of it 

 fourteen or fifteen coombs of these oats : this was during the 

 war, and in a great dearth of oats; and he actually sold 

 them for horse-corn, at about 28s. per quarter. Wild oats 

 are seldom found but on clays and stiff gravels : on all loose 

 soils, on dryish turnip land, on sandy soils, and on fen and 

 marsh land, they are rarely seen. The seed is somewhat 

 larger than common oats, of a dark brown colour, and having 

 a very rough awn or beard. Of course millers may very well 

 object to them ; for when many prevail in a sample of wheat, 

 they occupy a considerable portion of the measure. It does 

 not appear that in spring these weeds can be sufiiciently 

 distinguished from the wheat plants to be selected and 

 weeded out, which is also the case with darnel, and is the 

 more to be lamented, because the best system can hardly be 

 expected to eradicate those weeds, in regard to which the 

 hoe and the hand cannot be brought in aid of the fallow and 

 row culture. But this ought to be strictly attended to, as 

 being the strongest argument possible, why these seeds 

 should not be sown with seed corn. So far, the farmers 

 who pay attention are masters of these weeds ; and it must 

 be a wilful neglect not to act accordingly. 



Throwing the corn from one end of the thrashing-floor to 

 the other is a good plan to get the wild oats separated, their 

 lightness causing them to fall behind the heavier corn. 



7. HARIFF {galium aparine). This weed has many other 

 names — Goose-tongue, Cleavers, Goose-grass, &c. — 

 by one or other of which it is probably known every- 

 where. Leaves eight in a whorl, lanceolate, keeled. 



