1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



409 



plants, is exemplified in a tulip or hyacinth buPi. 

 If, even after the flower and flower-stem has 

 dried away, and while the green leaves remain, 

 you now take up these roots, they will shrivel 

 and be unfit for resettinj^; they must remain in 

 the ground until the leaves shall have performed 

 their office in the consolidation of the bulb. 



I have thus hastily drawn up these remarks, 

 which could be extended by numerous examples 

 of the folly of interfering with the leaves or lungs 

 of plants, while in a growing state. 



One reason which I have found to be given for 

 cutting ofi" the tops of corn was to accelerate its 

 ripening, but I understand this writer to say that 

 "corn will not ripen so quick by several days, 

 ■with the stalks taken off" early, as it will if suf- 

 fered to die altogether." 1 have supposed that 

 by this practice it ripened prematurely. 



Salem, Ms., 1859. J. M. Ives. 



For the Neto England Farmer. 

 A NOXIOUS WEED. 



I have noticed with interest for a few months 

 past, in a number of papers, that there appears 

 to be a waking up among the farmers to the 

 greatest scourge in the form of a weed that ever 

 visited our American land. I have reference to 

 "The V/eed," as the Springfield Republican calls 

 it. I cannot give the botanic name, and indeed 

 I do not know as it has any ; yet it does not want 

 for names. I will mention a few, most of which 

 I have seen in print. Butter and eggs, stink 

 weed, devil's snake, dragon's weed, Chloe's, Ma- 

 ry's, Mother Wait's, Mother Rice's, and Boyan- 

 ton's weed. It has a yellow blossom, a small, 

 narrow, picked leaf, somewhat in form like that 

 on flax, only larger, the color blue rather than 

 green, its odor very offensive, and will mature 

 so as to produce seed after being cut two or three 

 times a year. One traveller reports to have seen 

 it growing spontaneously in eleven diflferent 

 States. Hydra-headed, it matters little which 

 end is up, or what part of the root touches the 

 ground. I have known it to grow two or three 

 feet high, and so thick as to run out the grass, al- 

 most entirely, on the best of land. Cattle will 

 not eat much of it green, but when ripe will eat 

 the seed and scatter it where they go. If let 

 alone, it spreads beyond conception. 



Thistles, daises, cadlock, cale and fire grass, 

 when combined, will not prove so great a pest 

 to our New England. How it was first intro- 

 duced remains a mystery ; most probably, in for- 

 eign seeds. 



Some have introduced it into their land by 

 having it cultivated in their gardens for the blos- 

 som. By what I can learn, five of the above last 

 mentioned names were given for this reason. It 

 is estimated that the above named weed increases 

 in New England at the rate of twenty-five per 

 cent., notwithstanding the effort made to destroy 

 it. I have seen acres of land in itself very good, 

 that has been reduced more than one-half its 

 value, by having a quantity of this noxious weed 

 in it. 



Now, Mr. Editor, will you give us the true 

 botanic name, and tell us if there is any use can 

 be made of it, for the benefit of man or beast, 

 or tell us how it can be annihilated from our 



land ? I have heard it said there was a class of 

 flies in India that would destroy the weed, and 

 that we had better send express order for a bag 

 of them. I am afraid say so will never do us 

 any good. 1 give you my experience with it for 

 some years past. It made its appearance on our 

 farm, exciting no suspicion until it was discov- 

 ered to have taken almost entire possession of one 

 field. I mowed and carried off all I could and 

 burned it, yet it appeared as prolific as ever. I 

 then plowed, planted with corn, broom corn and 

 potatoes, hoed it three years, gave it one late hoe- 

 ing every year, so as to prevent seeds ripening, 

 hut to no good purpose. I then seeded to grass, 

 and sometime before mowing, carried on salt, and 

 where the weed was very thick, I scatt-red on 

 the salt dry, broadcast, thick enough to kill ev- 

 erything green. I then made a strong brine, and 

 having salt constantly in the bottom of my pail, 

 put it on to the weed with a brush broom, taking 

 a little salt each time, and when I could, stamped 

 it with the heel of my boot. In this way, wheth- 

 er sunny or rainy days followed, there would be 

 a briny surface. I continued the process the 

 first season, going over the ground three or four 

 times. I repeated the application last season 

 with equal success as before. I shall expect the 

 present year there will be less of the weed, by 

 seventy-five per cent., than last year. 



I wish hereby to notify those that see it ap- 

 proaching them, if by roadside even, to beware. 

 A New England Farmer. 



JDeerfield, Mass., July 8, 18o9. 



Remarks. — The weed spoken of above by our 

 correspondent, is undoubtedly the common Li- 

 naria, called toad flax, from the resemblance of 

 its leaves to flax. It is also called Ranstead weed, 

 and Butter and eggs ; why it has received the lat- 

 ter name we do not know, unless because its 

 flower resembles butter in color, and its odor that 

 of rotten eggs. 



Dr. Darlington, in his "American Weeds and 

 Useful Plants," says "it is extensively naturalized 

 — has become a vile nuisance in our pastures and 

 upland meadows. Mr. Watson, in his annals of 

 Philadelphia, says it was introduced from Wales, 

 as a garden flower, by a Mr. Ranstead, a Welsh 

 resident of that city ; and hence one of its com- 

 mon names. It inclines to form large patches, 

 by means of its creeping roots, — and as far as it 

 extends, takes almost exclusive possession of the 

 soil. Although the flowers are somewhat showy, 

 it is a fetid, worthless, and very objectionable 

 weed, — the roots very tenacious of life — and re- 

 quiring much persevering eflfort to extirpate 

 them." 



Habits of Fish Changing. — The habits of- 

 fish, in respect to taking the hook, are said to be 

 much changed within fifty years. The Grand 

 Bank fishermen found once no diflficulty in taking 

 cod by throwing the hook and line from their 

 vessels ; row each vessel is almost always provid- 

 ed with dories in which the fish are taken and 

 brought to the vessel. Mackerel fishermen once 



