ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 123 



used for litter, with but little diminution of its value. I should 

 recommend this as the most economical method of destroying 

 it in rocky lands that cannot be ploughed. The usual practice 

 of burning it in the fall, winter, or spring, does no good, and 

 should be discontinued. Burning it in a dry and hot day, in 

 summer, when it is in bloom, will kill the greater part of it. 

 But this cannot be done, where it has been burned in the spring, 

 or fall previous. There is a wild kind of clover, zigzag clover, 

 (trifolium medium,) which grows in this vicinity, which will 

 overpower and root out the woodwaxen. This fact can be ver- 

 ified by spots of ground in Danvers, where these two tap-rooted 

 plants have, sown by Nature, contended for the mastery, and 

 where the clover is victorious. This, however, is where gra- 

 zing animals have had no access. In pastures, where cattle 

 are allowed to feed, the clover would, probably, be eaten and 

 subdued. I have never known this clover sown for this pur- 

 pose. With a little labor, the seed might be obtained, and the 

 fact stated, is, I think, well worthy the attention of those who 

 have woodwaxen to destroy. Another means of destroying 

 this troublesome plant is pasturing sheep upon it. To do this 

 effectually, the pasture must be overstocked, and the sheep be 

 kept hungry. They will then eat up and destroy every spear of 

 it, and, if properly managed, kept alive, and ready to be fattened 

 on better forage. 



Another shrub, or vine, far more difficult to subdue, and 

 equally ruinous to pasture lands, is the blackberry vine. This 

 cannot be destroyed by ordinary tillage. On one of my pater- 

 nal acres, I have noticed, the present year, blackberry vines 

 growing on a spot where I have known them to be for more 

 than fifty years, notwithstanding the field has been alternately 

 under culture, or in grass, during the whole of that period. 

 Every piece of root left in the ground, and they run far below 

 the reach of the plough, will send up shoots to the surface, 

 which, if allowed to run themselves there, will live on indefin- 

 itely. The plan of smothering this plant, I have never seen 

 tried, but can have no doubt it would prove effectual, if con- 

 tinued a sufficient length of time. From its greater tenacity of 

 life, longer time, and a more careful watching and covering, it 



