44 NOTES. 



373 North Wales Report, 305. 



374 Communications to the Board of Agriculture, (by T. A. Knight, Esq.), 

 vol. ii.p. 184. Mowing them twice in the same year, in pastures, would be 

 equally effectual. 



375 Kent Report, p. 164. 



376 From the Communications of John Naismith, Esq. on Crass Lands. 

 Others recommend cutting the stems before they run to seed, as likely, in pro- 

 cess of time, to be effectual. 



377 It is much disputed, whether the butter-flowers, (ranunculus bulbosus, 

 repens, and acrisj, should be considered as weeds or not. Horses are certainly 

 not fond of these plants, but cows will eat the foliage of the ranunculus repens, 

 greedily with other herbage. Pitt's Essay on the Extirpation of Weeds, p. 362. 



378 General Report of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 570. 



379 Derbyshire Report, vol. ii. p. 101, note. This would be a most bene- 

 ficial law, and were it extended to Ireland, it would be found doubly neces- 

 sary. The practice of cutting weeds on the sides of roads, is so very uncom- 

 mon among the farmers in that country, that the clean and industrious cultiva- 

 tor, has not only to eradicate the weeds natural to his own farm, but also those 

 created through the neglect of his neighbour Remark by Edward Burroughs, 

 Esq. 



380 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 177, 178. 



381 By this means, Mr Westcar has completely eradicated thistles in his ex- 

 tensive pastures. Buckinghamshire Report, 239. In Thorney Fen, the per- 

 manent pastures have been gradually cleared by the same process. 



382 Essex Report, vol. i. p. 300. 



383 Gloucestershire Report, p. 116. It is also practised in Worcestershire. 

 Report, p. 205. In 1817, thistles are said to have abounded so much emong 

 the barley crops, between Witney and Cheltenham, as frequently to exceed the 

 corn in height. 



384 Essex Report, vol. i. p. 300. 



385 In Flanders, weeds are collected by hand labour in spring, and are boil- 

 ed for milk cows, when green food is so difficult to be procured. The farmers 

 thus get their lands weeded by the neighbouring cottagers, for nothing, solely 

 for the purpose of procuring these weeds for their cattle, and the farmer is thus 

 gratuitously freed from a great nuisance. 



386 Pitt's Essay on the Extirpation of Weeds, p. 256. Marshall's York- 

 shire vol. i. p. 368. 



387 Derbyshire Report, vol. ii. p. 177. 



388 Maison Rustique, torn. i. p. 640. 



389 See Withering, quoted by Pitt, 451. It is stated in the South Wales 

 Report, vol. ii. p. 1 95, that of all weeds, corn marigolds are the most difficult 

 to extirpate. These weeds, if abundant, are apt to stick together, and to turn 

 into a kind of mucilage, which prevents the crop from drying, and is injurious 

 both to the straw and the corn. 



390 See Skene's edit, of Regiam Majestatem ; Leges Alex. II. cap. 18. 

 Also Lord Hailes's Annals, Appendix, No. 3. The statute is very short, and 

 ably expressed. It denounces that man to be a traitor, " Who poisons the 

 " king's lands with weeds, and introduces into them " A host of enemies." 

 Bondsmen who had this plant in their corn, were fined a sheep for each stalk. 



391 Statist. Account of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 4. 



392 Berkshire Report, p. 365. 



393 North Riding Report, p. 240. 



394 This great source of mischief, is not so much thought of as it merits. 

 No plant can thrive without moisture, and hence those weeds, which absorb 

 much moisture, are particularly pernicious. 



395 When weeds cannot be extirpated by the horse or hand hoe, I have al- 

 ways found it necessary, to cut them twice when in corn crops the first about 



