254 ^^f' William Pitt on the 



Some years ago, in a dry season, I remember a ten-acre piece prepared for tur- 

 nips, and apparently in excellent order for sowing; the one half of it was sown 

 without waiting for rain, and the other half left; plentiful rain soon came, and on 

 the sown part the turnips and chadlock started together, and the crop was very full 

 of the latter, which required great trouble to clean out by hoeing and hand weed- 

 ing: about a fortnight after the other part was again ploughed, and then sown wiih 

 turnips; on this part scarce a single plant of chadlock appeared, the seed having 

 vegetated in consequence of the rain, was destroyed by the after-iillage. 



The summer of 1795 was very dry and free from soaking rain in this neighbour- 

 hood; in that summer I had a wheat fallow of nine acres manured with lime; 

 harvest being finished, and it appearing in excellent order for sowing early in Sep- 

 tember, it was sown with wheat accordingly ; soon after plentiful rain came on. 

 By some accident one butt or land, about four yards wide, the whole length of the 

 piece, was left unsown, having been harrowed without sowing : the wheat appearing 

 in due time elsewhere, the omission was discovered ; it was now sown and 

 ploughed in. The other part of the field abounded with chadlock, on this butt 

 there was scarcely a single plant. 



The early sown wheat fallows of the summer of 1795 were very generally full 

 of chadlock ; whilst the later sown were not at all, or much less, infested with that 

 plant : the reason is very clear from what has been said above. 



Hence it appears that the destruction of root weeds and seedlings, on corn land, 

 must be effected upon different principles ; the former by working them out of die 

 soil in dry weather only, the latter by pulverizing the soil, so as to induce the seed 

 to germinate after rain, and afterwards ploughing under the young plants ; also that 

 frequent ploughings and harrowings are necessary, to expose all the seedlings con- 

 tained in the soil to the powers of vegetation. 



The ploughings and harrowings of fallow ground should not, however, immedi- 

 ately succeed each other; time should be given for the consolidation of the soil, 

 which, after well harrowing, will undergo a slight fermentation, and settle, as it 

 were, into a mass, after which it will turn up mellow, and the destruction of weeds 

 will go on apace. The frequent ploughings, that have been recommended by some 

 arc not only unnecessary but injurious, insomuch thai if any person would plough 

 your fallow weekly for nothing, I believe it would be wrong to accept it. I have 

 always observed that one ploughing of a fallow too soon succcding another has no 



