Book VII. 



WEEDS. 



879 



5543. Tuberous and bulbous rooted weeds, are not very numerous; wild garlick, 

 arum, and bryony, are examples, and these are only to be destroyed by complete 

 eradication. 



5544. Ramose, fusiform, and such like rooted perennials, of which rest-harrow, fern, 

 and scabious are examples, may in general be destroyed by cutting over below the 

 collar or point where the seed-leaves have issued. Below that point the great majority of 

 plants, ligneous as well as herbaceous, have no power of sending up shoots ; though 

 there are many exceptions, such as the dock, burdock, &c. among herbs, and the thorn, 

 elm, poplar, cherry, crab, &c. among trees. 



5545. A catalogue of tveeds could be of little use to the agriculturist, as the mere 

 names could never instruct him as to their qualities as weeds, even if he knew them by 

 their proper names. Besides, weeds which abound most, and are most injurious in one 

 district, are often rare in another. Thus, the popj)y abounds in gravelly districts, the 

 charlocks on clays, the chickweed, groundsoil, nettle, &c. only on rich soils. A local 

 flora, or any of the national floras, as Lightfoot's Flora Scotica, and Smith's British 

 Flora, by pointing out the native habits of indigenous plants, may be of considerable 

 use to the agriculturist who has acquired a slight degree of the science of botany, so 

 as to enable him to refer any plant which he may pick up in flower, not knowing the 

 name, to its place in the arrangement of the book. 



BOOK VII. 



THE ECONOMY OF LIVE StOCK AND THE DAIRY. 



5546. Tlie grand characteristic of modern British farming, and that which constitutes 

 its greatest excellence, is the union of the cultivation of live stock with that of vegetables. 

 Formerly in this country, and in most other countries, the growing of corn and the 

 bearing of cattle and sheep constituted two distinct branches of farming ; and it was 

 a question among writers, as Von Thaer informs us it still is in Germany, which werfe 

 the most desirable brandies to follow. The culture of roots and herbage crops at last 

 led gradually to the soiling or stall feeding husbandry, in imitation of the Flemings ; 

 and afterwards, about the middle of the last century, to the alternate husbandry, which is 

 entirely of British invention, and has been the means of improving the agriculture of 

 the districts where it is practised, more effectually than any tiling else. It is observed 



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