1848. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



47 



proportion of the seed lies near the surface. If 

 this be turned under to the depth of eight inches, 

 but a very small proportion will germinate, and 

 the wheat will be to a certain extent free from 

 its pernicious presence ; if plowed twice, the 

 seeds are mostly thrown back to the surface, 

 which is admirably adapted to the increase of the 

 pigeon weed, while once plowing is found to be 

 at least as good, and I believe, decidedly better 

 for the wheat. If it be possible, the red root 

 should be pulled out of the wheat, but if the 

 quantity be too great for this purpose, a more 

 protracted effort must be made to destroy it. 



The wheat stubble should be plowed in the 

 fall, just af? deep as it was for the wheat, and well 

 harrowed. In the spring, the ground may be 

 plowed, (as shallow as possible,) but I deem it 

 decidedly better to use the large cultivator with 

 steel teeth, as not one spear can escape if it is 

 thoroughly cultivated, and the ground will be in 

 better order for the crop, which may be barley, 

 oats, or spring wheat, but in my opinion, should 

 be peas. The ground should be again plowed 

 and harrowed in the fall. In the spring let the 

 operation with the cultivator be repeated, and 

 the ground planted to corn. If this be placed 

 three feet apart each way, and tilled with a cul- 

 tivator, no weed of any kind need be grown 

 among it. This crop should be planted as early 

 as the season will admit, to give time for another 

 plowing in the fall, when the ground should be 

 harrowed as before. In the spring, the same 

 thorough use of the cultivator is necessary, and 

 the land may be sown to barley, peas, or oats, 

 which must be decided by the crop raised the 

 second year. If peas, then barley or oats may 

 follow, but in no case should the same crop be 

 grown in the ]-otation. I think it the better way 

 to sow flax, for the seed, because I consider it as 

 profitable as any other summer crop ; and as the 

 ground should now be seeded with timothy or 

 clover. I believe flax is the best summer crop 

 that grass seed can be sown with. Flax should 

 be sown early ; twelve quarts to the acre. I 

 think this rotation must destroy the seed in the 

 ground, as all that germinates in three successive 

 years dies, without the possibility of leaving 

 seed. If any yet remains in the earth, the quan- 

 tity must be so small that it may be easily pulled. 

 We might now sing a requiem over departed 

 pigeon weed, and read the burial service over 

 red root, were it not that Phcenix like there is 

 vitality in its very ashes. Though death and 

 decay may surround it, yet in its stone tenement 

 it is safe, and with patience it awaits the day of 

 its resurrection, which will as surely come as 

 the manure is removed from the barn-yard to the 

 field. 



The destruction of the seeds carried to the 

 barn with the wheat is the most difficult part of 

 the subject, and in order to effect it, no pigeon 

 weed must go into the barn ; for if it be carried 



there, it will be taken back again, and no system 

 of rotation or anything else will ever subdue it. 

 I feel very diffident about advising any farmer to 

 burn his straw, but in this case, I think the ben- 

 efit derived from the destruction of the seeds of 

 this weed, would be at least an equivalent for the 

 straw destroyed (or rather decomposed, for no- 

 thing can be destroyed.) It is the decision of 

 agricultural chemists, that a large proportion of 

 wheat straw is taken from the atmosphere, and 

 that every particle derived from the soil may be 

 found in its ashes. As this has been proven by 

 actual experiment, tliere can be no real loss by 

 such a conflagration. The proper method is, to 

 stack the wheat in the field, and as it is threshed 

 burn the straw, on as small a space as possible, 

 as all the heat that can be obtained from it is ne- 

 cessary to destroy the vitality of the seeds of the 

 pigeon weed. I believe it would be profitable 

 in many cases to mow the stubble and burn this 

 also. The ashes should be gathered up and 

 housed until they can be used in the compost 

 heap, or otherwise returned to the soil. It may 

 be thought that this system is too great a tax 

 upon the land, there being no return made in 

 manure ; but this is a groundless objection ; for 

 any farmer, following the rotation, may apply 

 artificial or barn-yard manure to either or all the 

 crops raised, as his judgment may dictate. The 

 soil will receive the manure made from the peas, 

 oats, barley, and corn, and clover seed may be 

 sown with either of these crops, except the last, 

 and the clover be plowed under in the fall (a 

 practice, by the bye, I would by no means re- 

 commend.) 



The manure that has already accumulated in 

 the barn-yard should be drawn out upon a sward, 

 and the ground planted to corn, with the follow- 

 ing rotation : 1st, corn ; 2d, peas, barley, or 

 oats; 3d, flax ; 4th, wheat. The pigeon weed 

 should be pulled from the wheat, if possible ; if 

 not, the first rotation may be applied after the 

 ground has lain two years in clover. 



It should be borne in mind, that the presence 

 of pigeon weed is a positive tax upon the farmer, 

 and that every dollar successfully expended in 

 its removal (to the full amount of this tax,) is to 

 him an absolute gain. I would remark in con- 

 clusion, to the gentlemen of the committee, that 

 I have not given a history of this plant, for the 

 simple reason that I do not know it myself ; and 

 although I have looked through all the agricultu- 

 ral and botanical works within my reach, I have 

 been unable to glean anything from them upon 

 this subject, beyond the fact, that like many oth- 

 er things among us, animal as well as vegetable, 

 the red root is a worthless exotic. — Trans. N. 

 Y. State Ag. Society. 



' Money skilfully expended in drying land, by 

 draining or otherwise, will be returned with 

 ample interest. 



