348 



WEEDS OF AGRICULIURE. 



weeds. We have witnessed pasture land of the best quahty 

 brought to produce little else than the coarse grasses, from 

 having been kept for a series of years under the scythe for 

 hay; and, at the same time, land of the same quality, sepa- 

 rated only by a fence from the former, producing the richest 

 quality of herbage from being regularly depastured. On 

 poorer soils, however, the bad effects of too close feeding 

 were evident, — daisies, procumbent trefoil, mosses, and an- 

 nual meadow-grass, prevailed over the superior grasses of 

 the pasture. On this kind of soil, moderate depasturing, 

 and a crop of hay in two or three years, had the effect of 

 encouraging: the superior grasses to overcome these dwarf 

 unproductive plants. Frequent top-dressings are of the 

 greatest use in effecting the above improvements on de- 

 teriorated thin pasture lands, as regards the destruc- 

 tion of weeds, as well as of improving the quality of the 

 pasture. 



In crops of artificial grasses, such as sainfoin, lucern, &,c., 

 when the dwarf thistle prevails, and when it is impracticable 

 under such circumstances to draw out this weed without 

 injuring the crops, a good remedy will be found in the use 

 of common salt. An enlightened agriculturist, T. B. Evans, 

 Jun. Esq., informs us, and authorizes us to state the fact, 

 that common salt dropped on the crown of this weed effectu- 

 ally destroys it, without injury to the crop of grasses. Chil- 

 dren may be employed to apply the salt by the hand to the 

 weeds ; and, when we consider how much more expeditiously 

 and safely this remedy may be used on crops of sainfoin, 

 lucern, and clover, in comparison to that of pulling the 

 weeds up by the roots, it is, doubtless, a valuable discovery. 

 When the sedges, marsh thistle, pestilent wort. Sec. prevail 

 in meadows, then recourse must be had to other means than 

 that of hand-weeding, viz. draining, paring and burning, 

 liming, and a judicious rotation of crops under the horse-hoe 

 husbandry, until every vestige of the seeds and roots of these 

 noxious weeds disappear. The ground may then be laid 

 down to permanent pasture, with the seeds of the most 

 valuable species adapted to the soil, and where water can be 

 commanded, converted to water-meadow, by which the value 

 of the land will be considerably increased. 



