WEEDS OF AGRICULTURE. 309 



rough, fringed with reflexed prickles ; stem weak ; fruit 

 bristly*. 

 It is said that geese are very fond of it; and so they are; 

 and cleavers are by far the best vegetable food which can be 

 given to goslings as soon as hatched. 



HarifF is a very scrambling weed, and runs to the length 

 of seven or eight feet, increasing in weight of branches and 

 foliage as it obtains the Hght, and gets through whatever it 

 grows with. It is, however, principally addicted to deep, 

 loose soils, mellow marshy land, and the drier sorts of fen 

 land. All lightish loams may have harifF, but it abhors 

 clay, and fen soils lying damp and low are not friendly to 

 it. In many clay countries it is probably not known, though 

 it be one of the very worst weeds where it abounds, The 

 farmers of clay lands on the verge of the fens, often buy 

 their seed wheat of the fen farmers ; and they heed not the 

 seeds of harifF, for, if they grow, they come to no length, 

 and are never seen at harvest. 



This weed increases excessively on loose, deep soils, when 

 once introduced ; its seeds are round, with a channel on one 

 side, as if rolled up. They are exceedingly rough, and ad- 

 here to whatever woollen stuff they touch, so as not to be 

 easily dislodged. Seed corn having burrs (as the seeds of 

 the cleavers are called) in it, if thrown on a large piece of 

 baize cloth, will attach all the burrs and clear the corn. 

 They are also heavy enough to resist dressing, and big 

 enough to escape the screen. Botanists tell us that they 

 may be roasted instead of coffee ; but unless children gather 

 them out of hedges for this purpose, they cannot be ob- 

 tained separate from other rubbish. 



Without doubt, when roasted, they would grind ; but raw 

 they are the toughest of all seeds in agriculture. Millers 

 may very rationally object to them, for, if they be nu- 

 merous, they will almost make the stones whistle. In sam- 

 ples of oats they are abominable ; horses can scarcely grind 

 them. 



* This common weed has been found wild in the remote country of 

 Nepal, by the Hon. Captain Gardner, from whom Dr. Wallich sent 

 Sir James Edward Smith specimens. 



