THE BROWN EARTH 25 



with certain crops the charlock will not grow. If 

 the field in which its seeds lie by the million is 

 sown with grass or clover, it will lie low and 

 wait for more congenial company. Knowing this 

 the farmer may put a badly infested field into 

 grass for several years, and flatter himself that 

 he has vanquished the enemy. Vain hope ! Dr. 

 Edward Carpenter tells how a farmer of his 

 acquaintance, pestered with charlock, tried to 

 extirpate the pest by laying down in grass a field 

 which the enemy had marked out for its own. At 

 last, after seventeen years, he thought himself safe, 

 turned up the ground, and lo ! the first spring 

 it was ablaze with yellow again. '* How," he 

 asks, " did those seeds during all those seventeen 

 years manage to understand the situation, and know 

 that it was best to lie quite still in their little beds 

 without stirring? " Probably they did not " know " 

 anything about it. They awaited the fitting stimu- 

 lation. But they as good as know, and it is 

 difficult in such a case to avoid the language 

 applicable to intelligence. 



The " dodge " of biding time makes for effi- 

 ciency on a large and conquering scale only when 

 accompanied by the dodge of number, and no 

 really successful weed neglects to make provision 

 in this way. The prodigal plan of providing 

 against the chances of life and death has been 

 made familiar to most people, chiefly in connection 

 with fish. The cod produces ten thousand (or is 

 it ten times ten thousand?) eggs in order that one 

 or two may reach maturity. I do not know if 

 any one has attempted to count the seeds produced 



