ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 121 



which voluntarily seize on our cultivated and uncultivated 

 lands, stealing the fertilizing properties of the soil and manures 

 — greatly adding to the toils of the farmer, or lessening the 

 products of his labor and his lands, — is a subject of the highest 

 interest to all interested in improvements of agriculture, and 

 who is not ? 



Weeds are either 



Aiimial, springing from seeds or bulbs, and existing one sea- 

 son only. 



Biennial, produced from seed, requiring two years to perfect 

 them, and dying the second year. 



Perennial, the root living an indefinite number of years, 

 while the top dies annually. 



And Slu'ubby, where both root and top, at least some part of 

 the growth above ground, lives through the winters of several 

 years. 



In order to ascertain the best means of destroying each, the 

 natural history of each, not only of each class, but of each in- 

 dividual species, must be carefully studied. The seed of some 

 of them, it is well known, will lie dormant in the ground for 

 years, till it is stirred for cultivation. Others never trouble us 

 in tillage operations, but prove injurious in grazing and grass 

 lands alone. The most common annuals that infect our tillage 

 grounds, such as Roman Wormwood, pigweed, charlock, &c., 

 can be subdued only by the most thorough weeding of the 

 grounds tilled, for a series of years, in no one of which must 

 these plants be allowed to ripen seed on the premises. To 

 young farmers, who till their own acres, we would say, declare 

 a war of utter extermination against the whole race of annual 

 weeds. And, although the extra labor may not be fully repaid 

 by the increased crops of a few of the first years, you will be 

 great gainers in the end, if you spend your lives,' or many years, 

 on the same homestead. Biennials must be treated in nearly 

 the same manner. 



Perennials, such as spread by their roots, as well as by seed, 



require a somewhat different treatment. One of the most 



troublesome of these, the one most difficult to exterminate, is 



the dog-grass, or witch-grass, (Tricticum-repens.) Ploughing 



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