THE BUCKWHEAT FAMILY 45 



tunities of the Sorrel to grow and spread. Old meadows and pas- 

 tures that are over-run with it and that cannot well be brought 

 under cultivation may be pastured with sheep for two or three 

 years to prevent it from seeding freely. 



The seed is exceedingly difficult to separate from alsike 

 seed, and lands foul with Sorrel should not be used for the pro- 

 duction of this crop. 



A three-year rotation of crops with good cultivation, in- 

 cluding shallow plowing directly after hay crop and frequent 

 cultivation until autumn to prepare for hoed crops, will keep 

 Sheep Sorrel well under control even on lands that seem to be 

 specially suited to its growth. 



In addition to the application of lime and good cultivation, 

 the liberal use of farmyard manure, plowing down clover or other 

 green crops, or any other means of enriching the soil, will stimu- 

 late field crops to a more vigorous growth and thus do much to 

 smother out and suppress this pest. 



ALLIED SPECIES: Garden Sorrel (Rumex Acetosa L.) is 

 a common field and garden weed in some parts of the Atlantic 

 Coast provinces. It differs from Sheep Sorrel in its more 

 erect habit of growth and its broader, arrow-shaped, oblong 

 leaf, with the ear-like appendages directed downward. 



"An old custom takes place in this parish called Goolriding which seems worthy 

 of observation. The lands of Cargill were formerly so very much over-run by a weed 

 with a yellow flower that grows among the corns, especially in wet seasons, called Gools 

 and which had the most pernicious effects, not only upon the corns while growing but 

 also in preventing their winning when cut down, that it was found absolutely necessary 

 to adopt some effectual method of extirpating it altogether. Accordingly, after allowing 

 a reasonable time for procuring clean seed from other quarters, an act of the baron-court 

 was passed, enforcing an old act of parliament to the same effect, imposing a fine of 3s 4d 

 or a wedder-sheep, on the tenants for every stock of gool that should be found growing 

 among their corns at a particular day, and certain persons styled gool riders were ap- 

 pointed to ride through the fields, search for gool and carry the law into execution when 

 they discovered it. Though the fine of wedder-sheep is now commuted and reduced 

 to Id sterling, the practice of gool riding is still kept up and the fine rigidly exacted. 

 The effects of this baronial regulation have been salutary beyond what could have been 

 expected. Five stocks of gool were formerly said to grow for every stock of corn through 

 all the lands of the barony and twenty thraves of barley did not then produce one boll. 

 Now the grounds are so cleared from this noxious weed that the corns are in high request 

 for seed ; and after the most diligent search the gool riders can hardly discover as many 

 growing stocks of gool the fine for which will afford them a dinner and a drink." 



P. Cargill, Perths-Statist. Ace. 12, 536, 537. 

 From Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary. 



