716 



F A R M E R S ' REGISTER 



!No.l2 



Lolium perenne, or ray-grass, is one of our 

 best, rind lolium temulentum one of" our worst 

 grasses. Luckily, the latter is only an annual; 

 appearing chiefly among wheat, and then known 

 by the name of darnel. This is generally sup- 

 posed to be the "inielix lolium" of Virgil, of which 

 he speaks in no measured terms of condemnation. 

 It is not a very common grass in Britain, where 

 farmers are particular in the choice of their seed, 

 but. in warmer climates it is a noxious corn-weed, 

 and, with the barren oat, overtops and chokes the 

 wheat, so that Milne thinks it highly probable that 

 The Greek zizania, which occurs in the thirteenth 

 chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, should be ren- 

 dered darnel, which would convey the meaning ol 

 the passage more fully than tares, and, in accord- 

 ance with this view, the French always translate 

 it ivraie, from ivre, drunk. Our partiality for con- 

 tractions has caused the corruption of the French 

 ivraie into ray-grass, one of the names of darnel, 

 although it properly applies to one species only, 

 viz., the lolium temulentum. which is said to pos- 

 sess intoxicating powers. Haller affirms that this 

 species of lolium not only produces intoxication, 

 as its trivial name implies, but that, if baked into 

 bread, or fermented in ale, its administration is at- 

 tended by very disagreeable, and even fatal ef- 

 fects. It produces headache, vertigo, vomiting, 

 lethargy, drunkenness, and difficulty of speech, 

 and the tongue exhibits a very strong trembling. 

 Seagar further remarks, that a trembling of the 

 body is one of the most cert-un signs of poisoning 

 by this plant. It also affects with blindness for 

 several hours. 



By the Chinese laws — for this plant is found 

 both in China and Japan — it is forbidden to be 

 used in fermented liquors. Some of the intoxi- 

 cating qualities of factitious beer are said to be 

 owing to the admixture of darnel with the malted 

 barley; and a tew years ago. two acres of ground 

 in Battersea- fields were sown with this grain: to 

 what good purpose it could have been applied is 

 unknown, for, though darnel meal was once re- 

 commended as a sedative cataplasm, it has long 

 been disused; and, according to Withering, horses, 

 geese, &c, are killed by darnel, and dogs are pe- 

 culiarly subject to its influence; mixed in small 

 quantities with their food, it is, however, said to 

 fatten chickens and hogs. 



In the "Medical and Physical Journal" there 

 are placed on record several cases of poisoning, 

 by darnel, in the human subject. In these, giddi- 

 ness of the. head, pain, and swelling of the limbs, 

 succeeded by abscess and gangrene, were the most 

 prominent symptoms. One of the sufferers lost 

 both his legs. Various othes cases, exemplifying 

 the poisonous properties of this grain, have been 

 condensed in the chapter on this plant, in the new 

 edition of "Medical Botany." This, the only 

 poisonous grass known, is easily distinguished by 

 its two sided spike, and one-valved glume; the 

 glumes being longer than the bearded locustae 

 they enclose. 



ENGLISH OPIMONS OF AN AMERICAN AGRI- 

 CULTURAL WORK. 



At page 511 of this volume, we commented it some 

 length on the manner in which the conductor of the 

 British Farmer's' Magazine, that thought fit to re-pub- 

 lish io that work a garbled and imperfect edition of the 



Essay on Calcareous Manures. Since that time, two 

 more of the numbers have been received, in which the 

 re-publication is continued, liable to all the objections 

 first stated. We have not read through the extracts, 

 nor indeed any entire page of them, for the purpose of 

 comparison— but to a general view, it appears that the 

 first edition is re-published entire, with the exception 

 formerly named, that a single short chapter ("on the 

 soils and state of agriculture in the tide-water district of 

 Virginia") is omitted, and also the preface— and these, 

 if not omitted, would have served to show to the Eng- 

 lish reader the true source, and proper object, of the es- 

 say, and would have prevented much of the awkward- 

 ness, and apparentpresumption, displayed by its appear- 

 ing (falsely) as an "original communication" in an 

 English periodical; and as if addressed to a class of rea- 

 ders, whom in truth, its anthor had not expected to reach. 

 If a single sentence of proper explanation from the 

 conductor of the journal for which it was thus borrowed, 

 had been prefixed, intelligent European agriculturists, 

 and men of science, might perhaps have been invited 

 to examine the work, if by no other inducement than 

 the novelty of transatlantic views on soils and agricul- 

 ral features altogether unknown in England, and alto- 

 gether different. JBut to suppose an unknown Ameri- 

 can writer to be addressing English agriculturists, 

 through the pages of an English journal, (as would be 

 inferred by every reader of the re-publication,) would 

 mark him as both conceited and presumptuous. We 

 venture to assert, that the views presented in the essay, 

 if fairly considered, will be found no less novel in Eng- 

 land than in Virginia. Still, the practical use of cal- 

 careous manures there has been long established, and 

 many volumes present instructions for their application, 

 and reasoning, voluminous, if not sound, respecting 

 their operation and value; and every intelligent reader 

 can well conceive that a writer, if addressing English 

 readers, would have adopted a very different form to 

 convey his opposing opinions, from what would be pro- 

 per in this country, where circumstances and opinionj 

 were altogether different, and the practice scarcely ex- 

 isted. But however much reason we may have to com- 

 plain of the conductor of the Farmer's' Magazine hav- 

 ing thus appropriated and disguised our work, and fte 

 unseemly and dubious shape in which he has presented 

 it to the British public, we freely admit our gratification 

 that, even in this way, it has been thus extended: and 

 still more that it has been the means of attracting the 

 attention, and eliciting the remarks, of the writer whose 

 incidental review of the portion of the essay which had 

 then appeared, is copied below from the same journal. 

 The reviewer had then seen only as much of the theo- 

 retical part, as treated of the first propositions: the con- 

 tinuation of his remarks, which he promises, will be al- 

 so re-published here, when received. Mr. Tow- 

 ers is the author of the "Domestic Gardener's Man- 

 ual," and of many articles in different British periodi- 

 cals, on scientific horticulture, and agricultural che- 

 mistry.* 



* One of his pieces, "On the excretary powers of plants" was 

 insert d at page 157, Vol. II. Farmes' Register— in which, and 

 seemingly on good ground, he asserted an equal claim to tola du- 

 covsry, the honor of which has be«ii awarded to Macair*. K». 



