WEEDS. 227 



or pastured, the latter being much more advantageous tor 

 the land. 



WEEDS. 



Whatever plants infest the farmer's grounds, and are worth- 

 less as objects of cultivation, are embraced under the general 

 name of weeds. In a more comprehensive sense, all plants 

 however useful they may be as distinct or separate objects of 

 attention, when scattered through a crop of other useful 

 plants to their manifest detriment may be considered and 

 treated as such. Perfect cultivation consists in having no- 

 thing upon the ground but what is intended for the benefit of 

 the farmer, and it implies a total destruction of every species 

 of vegetation which does not contribute directly to his ad- 

 vantage. 



In China and some parts of Flanders, the fields are entirely 

 free from weeds. This is the result of long continued cleanlv 

 cultivation by which every weed has been extirpated ; and a 

 scrupulous attention to the purity of the seeds ; and the sole 

 use of urine, poudrette, and saline manures. This object is 

 scarcely attainable in this country, except on fields peculiarly 

 situated. The principal causes of the propagation of weeds 

 among us, is the negligent system of tillage, and the use of 

 unfermented vegetable manures. By heating or decomposi- 

 tion, all the seeds incorporated in the manure heap are des- 

 troyed. But there is a great loss in applying manure thus 

 changed, and having parted with large portions of its active, 

 nutritive gases, unless protected by a thick covering of turf or 

 vegetable mold. For many soils and crops, undecomposed 

 manures are far the most valuable. But they should always 

 be applied to the hoed crops, and such as will receive the at- 

 tention of the farmer for the utter extinction of weeds. A sin- 

 gle weed which is allowed to mature, may become 500 the 

 following year, and 10,000 the year after. The cleansing of 

 land from weeds, is almost the sole justification for naked fal- 

 lows. When a large crop of them have by any means ob- 

 tained possession of the ground, they ought to be turned into 

 the soil with the plow before ripening their seed, and they 

 thus become a means of enriching rather than of impoverish- 

 ing the ground. Meadows which have become foul with 

 useless plants, may be turned into pasture ; and if there are 

 plants which cattle and horses will not eat, let them first crop 

 it closely, and then follow with sheep, which are much more 

 indiscriminate in their choice of food, and consume many 



