41 



XXXIII. " Weecli on Arable Land and their Suppression.'' 

 Winifred E. Brenchlev. Journal of the Royal 

 A<>;ncultural Society of England, 191 5. 76, 14-37. 



During the summer of 1914 a careful survey was made of the weeds 

 of arable land in parts of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and in the 

 present paper the results are correlated with those obtained in other 

 parts of the country. 



Although many weeds are of general occurrence, some are more 

 definitely associated with particular types of soil, and a partial classifi- 

 cation may be made as follows : — 



I. — Weeds that are indifferent to the soil type. These include 

 some of the most common and troulilesome weeds., as knotgrass, 

 shepherd's purse, chickweed. groundsel, curled dock, creeping thistle, 

 mayweed, horsetail, ivy-leaved speedwell and couch grass. Willow- 

 weed and hempnettle are found on all soils except chalk. 



2. — Weeds that are more general on medium or heavy land, as 

 orache. charlock, coltsfoot, creeping buttercup, sowthistle, bindweed^ 

 corn buttercup. 



3. — Weeds that are common on heavy loam and clay, as greater 

 plantain, goosegrass. 



4.— Weeds characteristic of very light sandy land, as poppy on 

 calcareous soil, and corn marigold, spurry. sheep's sorrel and annual 

 knawel on non-calcareous land. 



5. — Weeds associated with chalk, as wiiitf nuistard. toad-flax, wild 

 mignonette. 



Local peculiarities occur, hovvc\cr, so iIkiL a plant lliat is usually of 

 wide distribution may be confined to or absent from a particular soil in 

 a district, or may be so abundant as to l)e characteristic of some parti- 

 cular type of soil. The shepherd's needle will apparently grow on any 

 soil, but it is characteristic of chalk in Wiltshire, absent from chalk in 

 Norfolk, absent from sand in Bedfordshire, al^scnt from peat in 

 Nottinghamshire. Again, the field forget-me-not is never seen on 

 sand in Notts (being chiefly found on heavy soils), whereas in Norfolk 

 it is usually found on sand, and in Wiltshire it is confined to chalk. 

 Although chickweed, horsetail and shepherd's purse are really universal 

 in distribution, yet in Nottinghamshire the two former are more common 

 on the heavier soils, while the latter is more frequent on light soils, 

 such as sand and gravel. Many other instances could be cited, but 

 with due reservation on account of these local difl^erences the commoner 

 arable weeds can be classified according to the soils they frequent. 



Annual Knawel Sckranthvs ainnnis. Ma.vwee<l — Matnania inoilora. 



Ciiarlock -^Brrts-jca suiapls. Orfuhe ^ Atriphw palvla. 



Chickweed = Stellarm media Popi)y =- Vopai-er rhcenx. 



Coltsfoot -= TussilfKfo farfiirtt. Sheep';* sorrel = linnwx Aceioselhi. 



Corn Buttercup - lianiiiinilus arreitniit. Shephertl's Xeedle ^ Scandix pectevx 



Corn Mariaold ^Chriisintthnnvm seffctti/tf. Syiuny -^Sperovla nrrensis. 



Comhiiruss =^Tritiniin repois. Sowthistle = Soucfnt^ arvewtia. 



Creepinsx Bnttervup-^^ lidinnicul'is rt-penx. Toad-flax — />f>/rtr/rr fvJ{/(i.rii!. 



Field Forget-me-not =.l/(/osof(> anei>.^is. White Mustard =.Kww<*o alba. 



(rooseKrass- rrV/Zm.-H apariue. Wild .Mi2nonette = /?^'.SPf7^/ lutea. 



ITenip Nettle =-rT'fl/fo />.<>.'.• Tetrahit. \\"\\\()\\-\\^ei\-^PohiQ(nuim pprffnulit . 

 Ivy-lpaved Speedwell -= Veronica hedercefolia. 



XXXIV. " The Comparative Yield of Second Rate Arable and 

 Pasture-land:' E. J. Russell. Journal of the Farmers' 

 Club. November, 191 7. 



The subject is discussed from the standpoint of food production and 

 of the profit of the individual farmer. It is shown that arable land 



