WEEDS. 



WEEDS. 



are little noticed ; these are comparatively in- [ 

 nocent, and a very great portion of them have 

 no local or common names. Mr. William Pitt, 

 in his essay On the Extirpation of Weeds (Com. 

 to Board of Agr. vol. v. p. 233), enumerates 55 

 weeds; and the list might have been greatly 

 extended ; but few farmers, whose knowledge 

 is bounded by the soils they respectively cul- 

 tivate, would think themselves troubled with 

 more than a dozen to twenty ; that is, four or 

 five which trouble them in their fallows ; four 

 or five, the seeds of which infest their samples 

 of corn ; and a few besides, which are locally I 

 prevailing and obtrusive, but (as seems to have 

 been too generally considered) not very hurtful. 



The fact was, that, before the improved 

 agriculture became so generally known, those 

 weeds which did not hurt the samples the far- 

 mers cared little about ; not considering how 

 much they hurt the crops : and hence it has 

 been, that on the different soils corn poppy, 

 charlock, blue-bottles, corn marygold, May- 

 weed, &c., have been suffered to abound. 



The weeds of agriculture may be divided 

 into, 1. Those which infest samples of corn ; 

 2. Rooted or fallow weeds, and such others as 

 are hard to destroy ; 3. Those which are prin- 

 cipally objectionable as they encumber the 

 soil ; 4. Underling weeds, such as never rise 

 with the crop or come into the sickle. Under 

 their respective heads, in alphabetical order, 

 we have already treated of the deteriorating 

 qualities and mode of destruction of each weed; 

 but, following the above arrangement, we shall 

 classify them, and add such further remarks as 

 may be required. 



1. Weeds which infest Samples of Corn. In 

 England the weeds of this description do not 

 exceed ten in number, and it very rarely hap- 

 pens that more than two sorts are found asso- 

 ciated in one sample of wheat. They vary as 

 to soil so much, that some of the worst weeds 

 in fens and marshes are not known at all on 

 clay, cold soils, and are but very little seen on 

 any sort of dry turnip land. Light loams and 

 deep, loose soils generally have most weeds by 

 nature. The weeds which infest the sample 

 are, darnel, cheat, or chess (Bromus secalinus 

 and mollis), cockle (jJgrostemma Githago), tares 

 (Ervum tetraspermum and hirsutum), melilot 

 (Melilotus officinalis), wild oats (JLvcna falua), 

 hariff (Galium Jlparine), crow-needles, or shep- 

 herd's needle (Scandix pectcn Veneris), black 

 bindweed (Polygonum Convolvulus), annual 

 snake-weed (Polygonum lapathifolium), and 

 charlock seeds in barley sometimes. 



Of these ten weeds, whose seeds infest sam- 

 ples of corn, five are principally injurious to 

 wheat; the others are partial, and more com- 

 mon in barley and oats. 



2. On Fallow Weeds. The objects of a fal- 

 low are, and always were, first, to eradicate 

 root weeds, and cleanse and open the soil to 

 the fibres of future crops; second, to pulverize 

 and break down the texture of clay soils, and 

 mix them with manure, in order to bring the 

 land periodically into a mild and fertile condi- 

 tion. Seedling weeds are destroyed incident- 

 ally ; and good fallows, with good seasons, 

 kill a great many, though it be not the object 

 of fallowing. 



1108 



The English fallow weeds are principally 

 the following: couch, including Triticum re- 

 pens, dgrostis repens, Holcus mollis, and Poa pra- 

 tensis, rest-harrow (Ononis arvensis), saw-wort, 

 the common way-thistle, or pasture-thistle 

 (Carduus arvensis), curled dock (Rumcx crispus), 

 tali oat-like soft-grass (Holcus avenaceus), colt's- 

 foot (Tussilago Farfara), corn bindweed (Con- 

 volvulus arvensis), corn mint (Mentha arvcnsis), 

 sarface-t witch (Jlgrostis stolonifera angustifoha), 

 black foxtail-grass (Jllopccurus agrestis), com- 

 mon knot-grass (Polygonum aviculare), wild 

 carrot (Daucus Carota), hedge parsley, or dill 

 (Torilis infest a), common fool's parsley (JEthu- 

 sa Cynapium), spingel or fennel (Meum Fcenicu- 

 luni). 



3. Weeds which are principally objectionable as 

 they encumber the Soil, or whose Roots are annual, 

 and whose Seeds pass the Corn-sieve. Of this 

 class of weeds, the following deserve particu- 

 lar notice : charlock (several species), corn 

 poppy (Papaver Rhceas), blue-bottle (Centaurea 

 Cyanas), stinking May-weed (Anthemis cotula), 

 corn marigold (Chrysanthemum segetum). 



To extirpate these weeds, clean corn-seed 

 must be used, not a single plant of these weeds 

 must be suffered to perfect seed in the hedge- 

 rows, and a judicious rotation of crops adopt- 

 ed, so as to admit of the unsparing use of the 

 horse-hoe, as well as of the hand, in weeding; 

 by which means these noxious and disgraceful 

 pests of corn-fields will be overcome, and 

 banished from the soil. 



The corn-poppy particularly accumulates 

 upon gravelly soils of low quality, also on dry 

 sandy soils, and generally on all dry and shal- 

 low lands which are overcropped and neglect- 

 ed. But much better soils, as loamy gravel, 

 &c., are infested with it ; only here the crops 

 are generally good enough to keep it under, 

 and being less abundant, it is much easier sub- 

 dued by weeding. But the corn poppy is never 

 so triumphant as in a hot and dry season, in 

 which case many fields, which should have 

 been corn, are wholly covered with it. One of 

 three things must be done by way of remedy : 

 1st, the soil must be clayed or marled; 2d, or it 

 must be fed with much larger quantities of 

 farm-yard dung or compost ; 3d, if neither of 

 these be easily practicable, the rotation must 

 be changed. 



4. Of the Weeds called Underlings, or such as 

 never rise in the Crop, nor come into the Sickle. 

 These are groundsel or Simson (Senecio vulga- 

 ris), annual meadow-grass (Poa annua), chick- 

 weed (Stellaria media), shepherd's purse (Thlap- 

 si bursa pastoris), spurry (Spergula arvensis), 

 camomile feverfew (Matricaria ChamomiUa), 

 fat hen or wild spinach (Chenopodium album), 

 corn salad, or lamb's lettuce (Fedia olitoria), 

 flixweed (Sisymbrium Sophia), common fumito- 

 ry (Fumaria officinalis), and sand mustard 

 (Sinapis muralis). 



Land may be rendered inert or unfertile from 

 an excess of manure, as well as from the want 

 of it; severe and avaricious cropping, long 

 persevered in, being understood in both cases. 

 Over-stimulus, as in the first instance, wears 

 out, or renders inert, the principle of fertility 

 in the land ; and, in the latter instance, the 

 want of stimulus produces the same effect. 



