Stf Culircatian of Arable Land. Wheat. Cockle. Darnel. Couch in* 



Cockle * is likewifc a. weed that often proves hurtful to crops of wheat. It is 

 :of great increafe, frequently fending off feverat flems from the fame root, each 

 containing many pods filled with feed. It ufually blows about June, with a 

 pink-coloured blofTom, and may then be eradicated without much difficulty, 

 by pulling up the plants as they come up. There are two forts of this weed, 

 .the common and ear cockle. The latter, according to a late practical writer, 

 varies from the former, in being confiderably fmaller in fize, and by its peculiarity 

 of growing within the ear of the wheat plant; in fome inftances the whole ear 

 affording no other produce than this, while, in others, one part of it contains per 

 fectly formed wheat, and the other ear-cockle. It is afferted, on the authority of 

 much obfervation, to be a degeneracy in the wheat, from its being too frequently 

 jfonw on the fame land from which it was produced. f If this be the fact, the 

 remedy Tmift obvioufly confift in a frequent change of feed. It is, however, more 

 probable that this weed is produced by fowing the feed with the wheat, and may 

 of .courfe be prevented by care in fowing clean wheat. 



Whitt darnel % is another very prolific weed that does much injury to wheat 

 crops, both during the time of its growth, and when at market, by fpoiling the 

 fample. It is an annual plant, the flem of which has a flight refembla.nce to that 

 of grain, and may probably be beft prevented by attention to the putting in fuch 

 feed wheat as is perfectly clean. Where it occurs, the fafeft method is to draw 

 it out by the hand. 



Puck-needle || is a weed that is often abundant on fuch lands as are hard tilled, 

 and almoft equally injurious with the above in leflening the value of the fample at 

 the market. As the feed of this wheat is not eafily feparated in cleaning the corn, 

 much care is always neceffary in order to prevent its being fown with the feed. 



Couch, or what in many diftricts is better known by the name of fquitch, is a 

 weed that is highly injurious to wheat crops, and extremely difficult and expenfive 

 in its removal to the cultivators of fuch arable lands as thofe defcribed above. It 

 does not comprehend the roots of any one particular, but of feveral forts of peren 

 nial graffes, efpecially thofe of the bent kind, the dog s grass, the creeping foft 



* The agrostemmagithago of writers on botany. 

 , i Bannifter s Synopfis of Husbandry. 



J This is i\\eloliumtemulentum of botanifts, and is often known to farmers by the names of drake 

 or droke. ,. , 



11 The scardix pecten rencris of botanifts, and what is often known to agricultors by the names oi 

 Shepherd s needle, Beggar s needle, &c. 



