114 



Eradication of Weeds. — Trenching. 



V0L.V. 



in quantity and quality, or thereabout; this 

 is tytheing the crop with a vengeance, and 

 would never be submitted to, did not farmers 

 believe that crops " won't pay for cleaning !" 

 But, if tliis were the fact, what a losing con- 

 cern must be the growing of a corn-crop, 

 which is so expensive in every stage of its 

 growth ! and yet, none of us hesitate to per- 

 form it or are afraid to debit the crop with 

 the cost, which it is always sure to pay, if 

 the season is favourable. Is it not, therefore, 

 passing strange, that any one should be so 

 perverse as not to see, that if corn will pay 

 for superior cultivation, all other crops must, 

 and especially potatoes, a crop that is gene- 

 rally devoted to the weeds at some period of 

 its growth, although none perhaps suffer more 

 from their presence, particularly in quality : 

 and this remark is exemplified in a crop of 

 these, which is now growing in an adjoining 

 field, where my neighbour Dale gave up the 

 cleaning for a bad job, when he had got 

 through about half the piece ; they were of 

 an early variety, and he is now taking them 

 up, but it is really a caution to see the differ- 

 ence which there is between the upper and 

 the lower ends of the patch ; they appear, 

 upon the part which was allowed to go to 

 weeds, of quite another kind, even in their 

 form ; worm-eaten, scabby, and covered with 

 tubercles ; and, on boiling, are watery, com- 

 paratively fit only as food for hogs, and about 

 half the size of those upon the cleared land. 

 Now, it must not be forgotten that there is a 

 small condition appended to the promise, " in 

 due time ye shall reap;" it is, "if ye faint 

 not." My neighbour lliinted at half-way in 

 his war upon the weeds, and his crop of pota- 

 toes became a crop of iceeds, so thick and 

 high, that he was compelled to mow them 

 with a scythe, before he could see where to 

 put in the spade, the very rows being oblite- 

 rated ; and the crop in quantity, is equally 

 deficient. On my reminding him of the com- 

 mon observation, " crops won't pay for clean- 

 ing," I was pleased to hear him say, " I 'm 

 now satisfied they won't pay for neglecting, 

 any how." 



But I owe honourable mention of the man- 

 agement of the person who owns the sugar- 

 beet above noticed. Nothing is so common as 

 to see the headlands of the corn-crop full of 

 the largest and stoutest weeds, no care being 

 taken to clean them, even by mowing, after 

 the last cleaning of the crop; now here is an 

 exception to this almost universal practice, 

 for, at that time, he turned about and ploughed 

 them down, and sowed the land with buck- 

 wheat; and the view at this time is abso- 

 lutely lovely, the plant in full bloom, and re- 

 markably strong and vigorous — for every one 

 knows that the headlands are ahvays the 

 richest portions of the field— and promise a 



crop sufficient for the support of the farm- 

 household during the coming year. No fear 

 of this man's crops turning to weeds , but it 

 is quite amazing to see the fine crops of these, 

 which are repaying his neighbour's care of 

 them, to the value of cent, per cent. R. 



September IClh. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Trenching. 



Sm, — The best managers are always to be 

 found in the most unfriendly soils and situa- 

 tions — witness our friends in the eastern 

 States, the Scotland of America — so true is 

 it, that " In countries where nature has been 

 bountiful, man has been indolent, where she 

 has been niggardly in her gifts, the deficiency 

 has been more than compensated by the in- 

 dustry of man." 



In the "Survey of Aberdeen," there is the 

 most surprising account of what has been 

 done in the way of trenching their soil in the 

 neighbourhood of the town of Aberdeen, and 

 which doos indeed go to prove the truth of 

 the above observation I It is remarked, " The 

 greater part of the land in this vicinity has, 

 from the most barren and unproductive state, 

 been thoroughly improved by trenching : not 

 less than three thousand acres have been 

 trenched within three miles of Aberdeen, and 

 in all places of the county considerable ad- 

 ditit'.ns have been made to the arable, by 

 trenching the barren lands. It is practised 

 on land which abounds in stones of different 

 sizes, sometimes when the soil is dry, and in 

 other cases when it is wet, and then it is 

 united with under-draining: it is practised 

 when the object is to deepen the soil, or to 

 mix a portion of the subsoil along with it; 

 when the subsoil is tilly or very tenacious, as 

 well as when that next the surface is unpro- 

 ductive, mossy or exhausted by over-cropping ; 

 and lastly, when the land is foul, when 

 cleaner and stronger soil can be brought to 

 the surface. 



The expense, it must be confessed, could 

 not have been borne in many cases, if the 

 first crop — for so it may be called, as it co- 

 vered the whole soil — that was raised by the 

 spade and mattock, had not produced from 

 thirty to fifty pounds per acre: this was a 

 crop of granite stones, which was sold for 

 paving the streets of London ! But, after all, 

 the ground that was thus gained to the com- 

 munity would not have been able to recom- 

 pense the cultivator, if a mixture of the 

 spade and plough husbandry had not been in- 

 troduced. The rent of the land in the vici- 

 nity of Aberdeen is extremely high, being 

 now, on a lease for years, from five pounds to 

 ten pounds sterling per acre, and, in a few 

 cases, not less than eighteen pounds ! Yet all 



