OP WEEDING. 359 



Mr Kerr observes, thai in land that is much infested 

 with annual weeds, an industrious application of hand- 

 weeding, combined with well-wrought fallows or fallow 

 crops, according to the nature of the soil, and the farther 

 aid of drilled crops of grain, will do a great deal towards 

 a cure in the first course of rotation, and will render the 

 task comparatively easy, during the remainder of the oc- 

 cupancy. On this subject, there is an old rural proverb, 

 which ought to be held in remembrance by every hus- 

 bandman : One year's seeding causes seven years weeding 



Besides couch, or twitch, which can hardly be suffi- 

 ciently extirpated without a fallow, there are some de- 

 scriptions of weeds which require peculiar attention, as, 

 1. Wild-mustard, and other plants of a similar descrip- 

 tion; 2. Furze and broom; 3. Docks; 4. Thistles; 5. 

 Briers and Brambles ; and, 6. Tussilago, The farmer also 

 runs a great risk of introducing weeds, the seeds of which 

 are often mixed with the clover, and other grasses. 



1. It is almost incredible how long seeds of an oily qua- 

 lity, as those of wild-mustard, wild-radish, wild-marygold, 

 &c., after remaining in the ground for many years, will 

 vegetate, and when acted upon by moisture, the warmth 

 of the sun, and the force of manure, become strong 

 plants. Soil dug even from the bottom of deep ditches, 

 will produce them. The proper mode of extirpating such 

 weeds, is by pulling them when young, the expence of 

 which, it is said, may be repaid by giving them to cattle, 

 by whom they will be consumed when they are young. 



2. The seeds of furze, or whins, are likewise of an oily 

 description, and will lurk for many years under the surface 

 uncorrupted, and will vegetate in great numbers after the 

 land is again laid down to grass. A most intelligent cor- 

 respondent informs me, that he has seen ground, originally 

 a field of broom, which had been in tillage for thirty years, 



