346 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



and the process of pulling up may have been so retarded, 

 that all, or the majority of them, may have seeded ; and vain 

 indeed is the hope that the seeds, by being mixed up with 

 the manure, will have been killed. Even when apparently 

 well rotted often, indeed, when lime is mixed in the heap 

 the vitality of the seeds remains unimpaired; and hence, 

 when the manure is spread over the land in the autumn or 

 spring, the seeds germinate, and of that field in which it is 

 placed it may be said that the latter end is worse than the 

 beginning. We remember once having bought a lot of 

 well-rotted dung, so well rotted that all in it was appar- 

 ently dead; yet the growth of that same pest, the poppy, 

 which we have alluded to, was in the following spring 

 what the Yankees call a " caution " to see. If before this 

 we had any doubts as to the policy of burning all 

 weeds so as to get their value in the form of ashes, we 

 certainly had none ever after. We should, therefore, un- 

 hesitatingly, counsel all weeds to be burnt : that is the 

 only true way to deal with them : every other mode is but 

 a compromise with principle, and, like all compromises of 

 this kind, will only be a source of annoyance to him who 

 adopts it. By collecting and burning weeds we turn the 

 curse which Scripture declares them to be into a blessing. 

 151. We have thus glanced at the first and the third 

 of the ways in which weed-seeds are disseminated; we 

 have as briefly to point out the second of these, namely, 

 the mixing of these seeds with the seeds of crops. Shame 

 it is to say that in some cases this mixing is purposely and 

 systematically done by fraudulent seedsmen. The only 

 way, therefore, to meet this dastardly evil is to deal with 

 only first-class men; and, further, if seed purchased from 

 others than of this stamp is doubtful in value, to have it. 

 examined by an expert, and if weed-seeds in quantity are 

 detected, to expose the seller. But in many cases the 

 seeds of weeds get mixed up with those of the crop, not 

 with design, but through carelessness. The only way to 

 prevent this is carefully in harvesting to keep back all 



