WEEDS OF AGRICULTURE. 319 



spreading ; spikelets four- flowered ; florets lanceolate, 

 five-ribbed, connected by a web ; stipula short and ob- 

 tuse : stem and leaves smooth ; root creeping. 

 With respect to destroying couch there can be but one 

 way ; that is, by ploughing up the soil and pulverizing it. 



If there were no fallow weed but couch, as far as British 

 husbandry is concerned, fallowing would be quite as neces- 

 sary, and much the same in operation, as it is at present. 

 Under every rotation of crops, with the best management 

 possible, couch accumulates in all soils. The very best fal- 

 low must leave some ; with the barley it kindles and shoots, 

 and the clover year foster its growth. If then you have 

 wheat at one ploughing, it is seldom wise to break up the 

 tilth, but rather to harrow it lightly down, and drill the seed 

 upon the unbroken furrows : surface hoeing destroys annuals, 

 but has nothing to do with eradicating twitch. Hence, 

 after the wheat the fallow becomes as necessary as before ; 

 and this must be always so. On clay soils, according to 

 their quality, whatever the rotation be, fallows are still more 

 necessary, because of their cohesive nature. Twitch does 

 not work so freely on stiff land, nor does it accumulate so 

 much ; but here the labour, which might be slighted if de- 

 stroying couch only was considered, is necessary to pulve- 

 rize the soil, as an indispensable principle of fertility. 



By our ancient system of fallowing open-field lands, it 

 does not appear that destroying weeds was much in their 

 thoughts ; nor had the great benefit of pulverization on clays 

 attracted their attention. They broke up their fallows in 

 May and June, sometimes so hardened, and in such immense 

 lumps, that the rest of the summer did not dissolve the 

 clods ; nor, with the assistance of their abortive operations, 

 was the soil half broken down as it ought. Nevertheless, 

 their sole objects appeared to be, to break down the soil, 

 and mix it with manure in preparation for sowing their 

 wheat. At any rate, as the breaking down was frequently 

 incomplete, the cleansing must have been abortive, if they 

 had it in view. 



The modern dispute about the utility of fallowing, is 

 founded on this point: — that perfect and sufficient pulve- 



