io6 O F W E E D S. Part I. 



An experiment which M. Duhamel made, confirms this. He 

 ordered the earth with which a ditch had been filled fifteen or 

 twenty years before, to be dug out, and fpread on a piece of plowed 

 land. Several plants, of different kinds from any that were in the 

 reft of the field, fprouted up in the place where this earth was laid. 

 Confequently they were produced by feeds which had remained 

 found in the earth, during the fifteen or twenty years that the earth 

 had laid in the ditch. 



It is partly for this reafon, that lands which are fallowed, are 

 plowed thoroughly ; and it is certain, that as numbers of feeds fhoot 

 up during the fallow, repeated plowings deftroy many of them. But 

 there are feveral kinds of plants, fuch as wild oats and fox-tail, the 

 feeds of which do not fprout, till they have remained two or three 

 years in the earth ; nor will culture make them grow fooner. 



Some experiments have been made, which feem to contradidl our 

 author here. From them it feems to appear, that the feeds of thofe 

 plants which he fays require to remain three years in the ground, 

 v\^ere only buried fo deep that they remained found for many years, 

 and that they v/ill not fprout till they happen to be laid at fuch a 

 depth as is convenient or fit for their fprouting. Though the in- 

 creafe of weeds may be prevented for feveral years, by plowing, 

 cutting, pulling them up, &c. yet fome of their feeds may be thus 

 brought up by each plowing, till all of them have fprouted, and 

 then the field may be kept quite clear, by care. 



It is evident that the repeated plowings of fallow lands, far from 

 deftroying thefe kinds of weeds, ferve perhaps only to help their 

 feeds to grow more certainly, when the time of their fprouting is 

 come. 



Farmers have not yet thought of a more efFedlual method to 

 deftroy weeds, than by fowing the ground out of feafon ; that is to- 

 fay, by fowing oats the year that wheat fhould be fowed. It has 

 been experienced, that, by this means, fome kinds of weeds have 

 been deftroyed, v.diich, appearing only every third year, never ihew 

 themfelves but amongfi: wheat. 



But the farmer lofes a crop, and has ftill a great number of weeds 

 to deftroy, which obliges him to weed his corn. This is done 

 two different ways. 



A number of women place themfelves in a row ; and holding in 



their hands a hoe, properly made, they cut all the weeds they fee, 



2 fuch 



