240 Mr. William Pitt on the 



a root, having the eye or sprout in it, will vegetate if it escapes the winter's frost. 

 As it is now found that the shoots of the potatoe will crop well after transplanting, 

 it seems the better way to draw them from among other crops as they appear, 

 taking the advantage of showery weather, and transplant them into a bed by them- 

 selves, where they may succeed some early crop, as winter greens, spinach, early 

 cabbages, &c. by which means your other crops may be cleaned, and potatoes 

 raised without any expence of seed. 



These are the principal intruders into the garden, as far as observed by the 

 writer hereof, but many other sorts will occasionally appear from seeds wafted by 

 the wind; as well as be introduced by using raw dung, particularly of hogs and 

 horses, which often contain seeds possessing their vegetative power, and the litter 

 intermixed therewith often contains more. This shows that raw dung is very im- 

 proper for a garden, but it is often used, particularly for early or other potatoes. 



Much labour in weeding will be saved by particular attention in drawing up all 

 seedlings in time, and before they have sown their seeds; for the increase of many 

 weeds in this way is beyond calculation, and the precaution of preventing their 

 seeding should, therefore, never on any account be neglected. 



The tools principally used in the gardens of Staffordshire, for destroying weeds, 

 are, the spade, the three-fanged fork for cleaning out r90t weeds, and the different 

 kind of hoes, of which the Dutch hoe is used for scuffling over the surface, and 

 the common hoes, of a triangular or parallelogram form, for cutting up weeds, 

 moulding up growing plants, and loosening the surface : these tools are, I believe, 

 very general, and known every where. 



II. Weeds in Corn Fields and Arable Land. 



I think it needless to bestow much time on neutral plants, or such as are not 

 decidedly injurious ; many of these, therefore, to be found in arable pastures, will 

 not be mentioned, and others, of a more suspicious character, only slightly touched 

 upon ; whilst more particular attention will be paid to the vigorous and luxuriant 

 weeds whicli infest our corn fields, as follows : 



1. Ivy-leaved chickweed (Veronica hederifoliaj, sometimes very much abound- 

 ing amongst wheat very early in the spring, but seeding and leaving the ground 

 early, perhaps not much injuring the crop; the seed is said to ripen in 28 days 

 from the first vegetation of the plant, which appears in March, and often gives a 



