Cultivation of Arable Land. Wheat. CharlocU and Corn-Poppy in. 37 



There are feveral different forts of weeds that become injurious to wheat 

 crops, where they have been put in upon lands in an imperfect ftate of prepa 

 ration. On the lighter kinds of foils, efpecially thofe of the calcareous^defcrip- 

 tion, charlock* is often extremely troublefome. It is a weed that bears a 

 yellow flower in fome of the kinds, and a white one in the other, and is not 

 therefore one individual plant, as generally fuppofed by the mod part of farm 

 ers, but three diftinct fpecies each of which, is- prevalent in different places. 

 Thefe are the rough-leaved charlock, or wild muftard ; the fmooth-leaved, or 

 wild rape ; and the rough-leaved wild radim having white flowers. f They are 

 all annual plants, arifing from feed which they afford in great abundance, and 

 which, if fuffered to be fhed on the land, remain for a great number of years 

 enveloped in the clods, in a condition fit for vegetation oaexpofu re to the in 

 fluence of the air and a fuitable degree of moifture, by means of ploughing, or 

 any other method of breaking up and reducing the foil. Such plants mould, of 

 courfe, never be permitted to run to feed, but be extirpated in their young ftate, 

 cither by hoeing or fome other means : as, by attention in this way, much in 

 convenience may be avoided, as the increafe by feeding is hardly to be con 

 ceived. Bindweed is alfo a weed of the parafitical fort, that is highly injurious 

 to wheat crops on thi& fort of land. It is of two kinds, the common and the 

 black,j; and may be removed with greater eafe than the above,, by affording 

 fufficient tillage. 



&amp;gt; The corn poppy is another weed, that is often injurious to thefe crops on 

 the chalky forts of land 1 . It moftly makes its appearance about May, proceeding 

 \vithfuch rapidity in its growth, both in height and laterally, as foon to over 

 top the grain, and deftroy the crop, by the made that it produces, the corn be 

 ing rendered thin and defective in the ear. In thefe cafes it is the cuftom of 

 fome diftric ls to obviate the mifchief by eating the weeds in, the early fpring, as 

 about May, by hogs, which are faid to be fo particularly fond of the plant as to- 

 devour it with avidity, and in preference to the young wheat. ^[ The practice 

 feems, however, dangerous, and a better and more fafe remedy is at hand in due 

 tillage of the land, and the early extirpation of the plants by the hoe. 



* It is often, bcfides this, known by the different names ofcadlock, Jdtlock, kilk,\n particular 

 J- The sinapis mgra, the brassica napus, and the re.phanus raphanistrum, of botanifts. 

 3 The convolvulus arvensis, and the poligonum convolvulus, of botanifts. 

 The papaver rhoeas of botanical writers, 

 H Synopfis of Huftandry, p. 78. 



