PREVENTIVE MEASURES 31 



the number of weed seeds which are shed broadcast in 

 the harvest field. 



The number of seeds produced by various weeds is 

 dealt with at pp. 234. As an example, we may note 

 here that " a single red Poppy, left undisturbed, may 

 ripen more than 40,000 seeds, each capable of produc- 

 ing a successor. In something less than seven years 

 that one Poppy could produce plants enough to occupy 

 every inch of the thirty and odd million acres of the 

 United Kingdom, with red Poppies. The cardinal point 

 in weeding, then, is to prevent seeding." l 



Percival writes that " A single Poppy plant fre- 

 quently bears more than twenty flowers, and each of 

 these may produce two or three hundred seeds. Similar 

 enormous increase is met with in Groundsel, Sow Thistle, 

 Campion, Charlock, and practically all annuals." 



These figures, and the table at p. 24, clearly de- 

 monstrate that the prevention of seeding is most 

 important, and deserves the closest attention of all 

 connected with agriculture. 



(d) Sowing Clean Seed. The manner in which weeds 

 are introduced through the medium of agricultural 

 seeds has already been dealt with. It is abundantly 

 clear that if impure seeds be sown all the preventive 

 and remedial measures combined will not avail to keep 

 a farm, garden, or lawn clean and free from weeds. 

 Too much stress cannot be laid upon this matter, 

 which is not sufficiently recognised, although more 

 pains are now taken by seed merchants to supply clean 

 seed than was formerly the case. But, as Mr. Primrose 

 M'Connell has said, 2 it would be interesting to know 

 what becomes of all the second and third year old seed. 

 Agricultural seeds which contain more than a very 



1 Vinton's Handbooks of the Farm, "The Crops," p. 136. 



2 Diary of a Working Farmer. 



