SCARIFYING, OR GRUBBING. 477 



Coke, of Holkham) used to make it his boast, that not a weed 

 could be found in extensive fields of his cultivation, and offered 

 a high reward for the discovery of one. The couch grass, 

 (triticum rcpens,) and the common charlock, (wild mustard,) and 

 the poppy, abound, in some districts, to a most extraordinary 

 degree ; and in cleaning the fields, in the autumn, of couch grass, 

 the piles of it which are sometimes seen would lead one to 

 suppose that it was the only crop grown on such places. In 

 some cases, where the land is very dirty, and the cleansing very 

 thorough, the heaps of weeds have been as numerous as cocks 

 of hay in a mown field. 



The general practice is, to burn these heaps upon the field, to 

 the expediency of which I strongly demur. The amount of 

 ashes obtained in such case is altogether inconsiderable. The 

 couch grass being extremely vivacious, and propagated from 

 every joint, it is not easy to bury it so deep as to extirpate it. 

 Some of the Scotch farmers pile it up at the outside of their 

 fields, and mingle with it quicklime, which of course soon 

 consumes it. I cannot help thinking it would be much better to 

 use it as litter in the cattle-sheds or stalls, and fold-yards, where, 

 by the trampling of the stock, it would soon become decomposed, 

 and, without danger of starting again into life, it would go to 

 essentially increase the compost heap. 



The operation of scarifiers, or grubbers, will be seen at once 

 by a reference to the plate. Many of them are certainly very 

 efficient instruments, and, when the team is sufficiently powerful, 

 stir the land most thoroughly to a great depth. There is a con 

 siderable variety of them ; and the peculiar excellences of each 

 of them are always fully set forth by the inventor or maker, 

 in doing which, there seems to be no want of talent or address 

 among the English, and some of them may fairly challenge com 

 petition with Peter Pindar s razor-seller, or with any of the 

 vivacious and voluble tribe of Connecticut pedlers. 



The infinite variety of machines and mechanical contrivances 

 exhibited at the great agricultural shows in this country, cover 

 ing literally acres and acres of ground, strikes a visitor with 

 astonishment. As, in reading the accounts of patent medicines 

 in the public newspapers, one is led to think that the reign of 

 disease is abolished, and the victory of health, life, and perpetual 

 youth, on earth, secured, so, in looking at the number and variety 



