WEEDS INJURIOUS TO THE WHEAT CHOP. 



183 



wiiith of three feet, under most unfavorable eircum- 

 st;ini'esi. The prruss was second crop, fine, thicU, and 

 partially frost killed, which caused it to cut exceed- 

 iuf;ly hard. Yet, under these circumstances the 

 horse walked with apparent ease, and cut the grass 

 so n.osE and perfkct as to give entire satisfaction to 

 about thirty farmers aud mechanics who witnessed 

 the operation. Your committee are satisfied that 

 Mr. Russell has, in a great measure, overcome the 

 great objections nude against other machines, being 

 of lighter draft, cuts the grass more even, is less com- 

 plicated, consequently less liable to get out of repair 

 * * * In oonclusioD, your committee cannot hes- 

 itate to recommend this machine, as a most valuable 

 acquisition to the farmer. 



" For the Committee. 



"PAOLl LATHROP, Chainnan." 



B. B. Kirtland, Esq , a prominent oDSeer of the 

 New York State Agricultural Society, and a distin- 

 guished farmer, furnishes the following testimony : 



" I hereby certify that I used Fisk Russell's mow- 

 ing machine last season, and cut all my grass with it, 

 to the amount of si.\ty acres, and have no hesitation 

 in saying that it does its work as well and as rapidly 

 as any other I ever saw, and with much easier 



DRAFT FOR THE TEAM. 



" B. B. KIRTLAND. 

 " Greenbush, Rens. Co., N. Y., March 10th, 1855." 

 Boston Cultivator. 



WEEDS INJTJBIOUS TO THE WHEAT CEOP. 



Messr.s. Editors — I send you the following, for 

 publication in Tke Cultivator, about the Litho- 

 spermiim arvense, which, in dilferent sections of the 

 United States, has the names of Pigeon Weed, Red 

 Root, Stone Weed, Corn Gromwell, &c. 



Description. — Stem, 12 to 18 inches high, much 

 branched, and whole plant hisped, with short op- 

 pres-sed hairs. Leaves, lance-linear, acute, with a 

 midrib. Lower leaves often obtuse. Flowers, soli- 

 tary, subsessile and axillary. Corolla, white, or 

 yellowish white. Calyx, segments acute, hispid cil- 

 iate. Nuts, rugose, ovoid, with the acuminate beak 

 rather oblique. Root, annual. 



In the artificial or Linuean System it belongs to 

 the Class Pentandria, order Monogynia, and accord- 

 ing to the Natural System, it is placed with the Bor- 

 aginoe, or Borage tribe of plants. It is a great pest 

 to the wheat crop, by outgrowing and smothering 

 the young wheat in the spring ; generally arriving 

 at maturity in Western New York, in the month of 

 June, two or three weeks before the wheat harvest. 

 Its seeds yield a small quantity of oil, being worth at 

 the oil mills from 31 to 37 cents per bushel. But 

 this is a poor compensation for the damage done to 

 the fanner. 



It is a native of Europe, where it is frequent 

 in cultivated fields and pastures ; yet it does not 

 seem to prevail to such an extent as to do much 

 damage to the wheat crop, since little notice appears 

 to be taken of it by their agricultural writers. 

 Loudon, an English author, in his Encyclopedice 

 of Plants, merely states that the bark abounds 

 with a deep red dye, which stains paper, linen, &c., 

 and which is easily communicated to oily substan- 



ces, resembling in this respect the Alkanet root — 

 hence it is often calleil in England the bastard 

 Alkanet The country girls in the north of Sweden, 

 stain their faces with this root on days of festivity. 



Besides the arvense, there are nine other species 

 enumerated as growing in G e it Britain, aud in 

 DecandoUo's Produmus, we find sixty-five species 

 described, most of which are natives of the old world. 

 The " Red Root," is widely diffused, growing in nearly 

 every part of Europe ; it is a native of Northern 

 Africa, according to Defontanes, and was found in 

 Southern Africa by Burch. It grows near the river 

 Euphrates, in Asia, where it was collected by Ches- 

 ney, and also in Asia Minor, according to Aucher. 

 It has probably been greatly spread by the migra- 

 lion of birds, since many species of birds void their 

 food when they find something that suits them bet- 

 ter. Thus it is supposed to have been often spread 

 in this country, and hence one of its names, " Pigeon 

 Weed." 



It has been introduced into America, an 1 is 

 already spread through a large portion of the wheat 

 growing states.~It grows in the vicinity of Charles- 

 ton, South Carolina, according to Elliott, and from 

 our Botanical Catalogues, we find that it abounds in 

 Kentucky, Ohio, and the Western States, in Mary- 

 land and Virginia, and in Vermont and Massachu- 

 setts, and every farmer knows that it is found, more 

 or less, throughout the Middle States. There are five 

 or six additional species growing in the United 

 States, a new species having lately been discovered 

 by Dr. Chapman in Florida. In Yates Co., there 

 are two species, the arvense and latifolium. To 

 return to the arvense — when it has once obtained 

 possession of a field, it is eradicated with difficulty, 

 as its seeds will be in the ground many years 

 without germinating, especially when they are cov- 

 ered to a depth which prevents them from receiv- 

 ing a due proportion of air, warmth and moisture. 



It is only by studying its nature that we can 

 arrive at any sure method of exterminating it. Seeds 

 of every description fail to germinate immediately 

 after becoming ripe, if they are covered at a slight 

 depth with moist, warm soil, before they get dry and 

 hard. The Pigeon Weed, or Red Root, rip«ns some 

 weeks before wheat, and if the season be dry, the 

 seeds, by being deprived of their natural moisture, 

 will not germinate unless they are placed under very 

 favorable circumstances, viz. be slightly covered with 

 a moist warm soil. Its seeds are very hard, hence its 

 botanical name, which is derived from two Greek 

 words, signifying stone and seed, so that they are 

 under all circumstances most difficult of germination. 

 Hence, after the wheat harvest, they generally lie 

 upon the surface of the ground, without germinating, 

 until by subsequent cultivation of the soil, they are 

 nursed into life. It may be, that if they are buried 

 to a great depth, by the first plowing after wheat, 

 and the subsequent plowings are not quite so deep, 

 that they will remain unchanged for years, and the 

 farmer may suppose that his soil is free of the pest, 

 until deep plowing brings them to or near the sur- 

 face, where the conditions are favorable to their ger- 

 mination. Prof Lindley, in the third edition of his 

 Introduction to Botany, mentions that he had three 

 plants of Raspberries, which had been raised from 

 seeds found in the stomach of a man whose skeleton 



