Chap. XVI. O F W E E D S. 105 



nay, they fomctimes get the afcendant, and multiply to fo great a 

 decree, that a field will almofl: feem never to have been lowed with 

 corn. 



The weeds which are feared moft, are, i . Cockle or darnel. Its 

 feed is black ; but being heavy, and nearly of the fame fize as the 

 grains of wheat, it is not eafily feparated from them. Sifting, and 

 throwing the corn at a diftance on a large floor, are the beft ways 

 of clearing the wheat of it. If ground with the corn, it makes 

 bread look black. 



2. Fox-tail, the feed of which is fomewhat like wheat. Thin 

 gives bread a bitter tafte. 



3. Wild poppy, or red-weed, the feed of v/hich is vc^y fmall, and 

 fometimes multiplies fo prodigioufly that it choaks the wheat. 



4. V/ild fitch, which covers the corn when it is laid, hinders it 

 from rifmg again, and makes it rot. 



5. Dog's grqfs, and coif s foot, which multiply by their feeds, and 

 extend thcmfelves by their creeping roots, and even by the piece? 

 of their roots which are broke off by the plough. 



6. Mciilot, which gives bread a bad tafte ; and 



7. T/jifiks, and many other weeds, which greatly exhauft the 

 earth. 



8. Charlock, the young plants of which it will be of advantage 

 to the farmer to be able to diflinguilh from young turneps, eipe- 

 cially in weeding the latter, left they be reared or plucked up in- 

 difcriminately. This can fcarcely be done but by the taftc, the 

 charlock beino- hot and bitter, and the turneo mild. 



To prevent the increafe of weeds, it is proper to deftroy them 

 before their feed is ripe. But that is not pollible in lands which 

 are plowed in the common wayj becaufe they grow with the good 

 corn, and moft of them ripening fooner than the wheat, their feeds 

 fow themfelves, and the weeds multiply. Neither muft we expeft 

 to deftroy them by refting the land ; for their feeds will remain 

 found feveral years in the earth. If a field that has a great many 

 poppies in it, is fowed with fainfoin, fcarce a poppy will appear the 

 iecond year : but when the fainfoin is plovvxd up at the end of even 

 nine years, the poppy frequently appears anew ; which can hardly 

 be owing to any other caufe, than that its feeds have remained 

 found in the eai'th all that time ; for very few of them can have 

 been brought from the neighbouring grounds, or in dung. 



P An 



