no COMMON WEEDS 



fields, crowding round the lower parts of the stems of the 

 cereals and other crops. The seeds of Veronica are 

 found as impurities in clover and grass seed samples. 

 Hoed crops and surface cultivation of corn crops in 

 spring are perhaps the best means of reducing them ; 

 clean seed should be sown. 



LABIATE 



Corn or Field Mint (Mentha arvensis L.) must be 

 classed as, in some districts, one of the worst weeds 

 of arable land. It is i to 2 feet high, with square 

 stems bearing opposite branches ; the leaves are ovate, 

 more or less serrate, shortly stalked, and opposite one 

 another in pairs ; the small lilac labiate flowers, which 

 open in August and September, are in dense whorls or 

 clusters in the axils of the leaves. The whole plant 

 (Fig. 31) is downy or hairy, has a strong smell, like 

 garden mint, when crushed, and is rapidly propagated 

 by extensively creeping rootstocks. 



This weed grows freely in all damp soils, and is too 

 commonly found in cornfields and arable land generally. 

 It must be combated by draining ; by deep ploughing 

 and cultivation, followed by harrowing to gather the 

 creeping rootstocks, which should be burnt ; by the 

 growth of two fallow crops e.g. potatoes and mangolds 

 in succession, in order to give increased facilities for 

 tillage operations and hoeing ; by a short rotation 

 generally ; by smothering crops like vetches, or a heavy 

 crop of maize in the southern counties ; and if necessary 

 by paring and burning the surface soil. Fream says of 

 this pest, 1 " It will always be best conquered by cor- 

 recting those defects of the soil which encourage its 

 growth by draining and paring." 



1 Complete Grazier, p. 856. 



