ON THE WEEDING OF ROOT CROPS. 347 



weeds, and not to allow them to be mixed up with the 

 crop. This, of course, may be, as it has often been, 

 objected to as involving labour. All that need be said in 

 reply to this is, that if labour is grudged to gain a good 

 end, the business nay, any business had better never 

 be entered into; nevertheless, there is another way of 

 looking at it the cost of carefully keeping out seeds of 

 weeds from crop seeds may be set against the loss sustained 

 in after seasons by the number of weeds : we know pretty 

 well how the balance will be in some cases. On the other 

 hand, however, it may be said that farmers generally pur- 

 chase their seed, and do not save it. It must be saved, 

 however, somewhere; and where saved it is worth while 

 to save it, and not the seeds of weeds in addition. But 

 where seed is purchased for crops, it is no less true that 

 purchased along with it are the seeds of weeds ; and very 

 careless indeed are many farmers as to the condition of the 

 seed they purchase so careless that they act as premium- 

 givers to those criminally disposed, by their carelessness 

 actually inducing fraudulent seedsmen to mix seeds of a 

 bad kind with them. All seed should be examined if pos- 

 sible. The following is the result of one or two examina- 

 tions of this kind, from a paper by Professor Buckman, who 

 has devoted much time to the subject of weeds : In a pint 

 of clover seed the Professor discovered 7,600 weed-seeds ; 

 in a pint of cow-grass seed, 12,000; in a pint of brand 

 clover, 39,440; and 2 pints of Dutch clover yielded 

 severally 25,560 and 70,400 weed-seeds. Here, then, are 

 three sources of the spread of those weeds which are pro- 

 pagated by their seeds, all of them more or less directly 

 within the control of the farmer. He can prevent, if he 

 likes, the seeds of weeds being scattered abroad by the 

 winds, by simply cutting the weeds down before they seed ; 

 he can keep the seeds of weeds out of his dung-heap by 

 burning them ; and he can, in large measure, prevent his 

 crop-seeds being mixed with the seeds of weeds. But 

 there is another class of weeds which are mainly propagated. 



