The Eradication of Weeds 



Troublesome Weeds. 



Among the most troublesome of weeds are couch-grass, 

 colt's-foot, nettles, docks, and " old man's beard." For a 

 garden infested liberally with all or any of these, there is 

 absolutely no cure but deep cultivation and hand picking. 

 It must be continued not throughout one year only but for 

 several years together. Of course the best time for cleaning 

 ground is when it is being dug over. There is certainly 

 this advantage in having ground thus infested, for if there is 

 a thorough determination to get rid of the evil there must 

 of necessity be deep digging and thorough breaking up of 

 the soil. A basket or barrow should be kept at hand, and 

 even the smallest piece should be pulled out, as it will 

 surely grow. To make thoroughly sure that these weeds do 

 not get returned to the land, it is better to burn them 

 straight away, or bury deeply in a hole. To throw them into 

 the common rubbish-heap, from which they will eventually 

 return to the garden, is labour in vain. Other weeds may be 

 dug in the ground. In hot dry weather it will be necessary 

 simply to hoe the ground and leave the weeds on the sur- 

 face, where they will wither from the fierce rays of the sun. 

 In other cases they should be raked up and put into a 

 trench prepared for the purpose. When this trench has 

 been filled with weeds, cover it over with the soil previously 

 taken out, and take out another trench to be filled likewise. 

 A friend of mine a practical cultivator of some fifty years' 

 experience makes it a practice each autumn to take out a 

 trench, eighteen inches deep, on the piece on which he in- 

 tends to plant his runner beans. The bottom of the trench 



is then dug up. All the weeds and rubbish which accumu- 

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