THE GRASS FAMILY 37 



"There is no difficulty in eradicating this grass from any 

 land which can be plowed, as the usual method of breaking in 

 June will destroy it. It gives most trouble in waste places 

 where it ripens its seed, which is spread abroad in every direction 

 by wind and water. It grows freely about the edges of hay 

 sloughs on the prairie and is generally ripe before any hay is cut. 

 The remedy in this case would be cutting before the seeds were 

 formed. In a wet season probably a second cutting would be 

 necessary to prevent any seed ripening. When fields of awnless 

 brome grass are badly infested, it is best to break and backset 

 and then take a crop of grain before re-seeding; or the fields 

 may be burnt over in the fall to destroy such seeds of the Wild 

 Barley as may have fallen; early in the following spring plow 

 the sod shallow and then harrow and roll. In this way the 

 brome grass may be renewed without re-seeding, and most of 

 the weed will have been destroyed." 



The face of Nature smiles serenely gay; 



And even the motley race of weeds enhance 



Her rural charms: Yet let them not be spared; 



Still as they rise, unconquered, let the hoe 



Or ploughshare crush them. In your fields permit 



No wild-flower to expand its teeming bloom: 



In wood and wild, there let them bud and blow 



By haunted streamlet, where the wandering bee, 



Humming from cup to bell, collects their sweets. 



James Grahame, British Georgics, 1812. 



When the farmer has been at the Charge of enriching and tilling his Ground, he 

 expects the advantages of his labours and Expence; and wishes the improvements he 

 has made in the land may give all its Fertility to his Crop; but he is to consider Nature 

 sows while he is sowing; her provision for keeping up the Species of Plants is very won- 

 derful; their Seeds are Scattered to great Distances, and where they fall they grow. 

 While the Seeds of some Plants are winged with Down to make them float upon the 

 Air, the roots of others are so full of life, that the least Morsel of them remaining in the 

 Ground will grow. Tis not with Plants as with Animals: in these the loss of a limb or 

 other essential Part cannot be restored, except in some few particular Kinds: but in Plants, 

 while anything remains the whole will be renewed. Hence is the origin of Weeds to be 

 trac'd by the Farmer, and hence he will find them universal. 



Thomas Hale, The Compleat Body of Husbandry, 1756. 



