68 



NEW ENGLA>s^D FARMER, 



Trom the Genesee Farmer. 



WEEDS. . 



The astonishing increase of weeds, — and by this 

 name we moan all noxious plant.*! th.it infest soils, 

 especially cultivated ones, — such as tlie thistle, 

 redruot, charlic, Jolmswort, daisy, and a multitude 

 of others with which our farmers are but too well 

 acquainted, would seem to demand that more at- 

 tention should be paid to the best methods of cx- 

 terminatintr tliem, or at least preventina; their in- 

 crease, before the cultivation of our richest fields 

 becomes impossible or unprofitable. 



Many weeds spread rapidly by the root, as the 

 lliistlo, Johnswort, &c.; others are propagated only 

 by seeds, .as the redroot and charlic ; but, as there 

 is scarce a plant that cannot be propagated by the 

 seeds, and those first named it is evident spread 

 extensively that way as well as by the roots, it is 

 clear the preventing the formation ami ripening of 

 seed should be the first object with the farmer, to 

 prevent their being scattered by sowing, or by the 

 spreading of manures, the second thing to be aimed 

 at. 



Farmers who allow the weeds named, or indeed 

 any ojjiers, to ripen and distribute their seed un- 

 molested, are preparing a rich harvest of losses in 

 tiie actual value of their farms, and of toil and 

 trouble in their management; and those who sow, 

 or allow to be sown on their farms, seed of any 

 kind containing these pestiferous germs — we say 

 nothing here of those who knowingly dispose of 

 them, as the cons-jience of a man who would spread 

 his neighbor's fields with the thistle, steincrout, or 

 charlic must be proof against all ordinary appeals 

 to a moral sense — must we think entirely overlook 

 the fearful consequences, if not to themselves, to 

 their posterity. There are many farms within our 

 knowledge the profits of which are already most 

 materially lessened from the operation of these 

 causes, and tlie evil instead of diminishing is yearly 

 increasing. 



In the cultivation of grain, to which so much of 

 our country is, and must be devoted, the farmer is 

 exposed to this increasing evil in at least three dif- 

 ferent ways to which the owner of a grazing farm 

 is not liable ; first from ploughing in seed scattered 

 by the winds or tlie birds ; second, from that mixed 



SEPTEMBER 5, 1838: 



therefore, where circumstances admit should always 

 be ploughed under, to undergo the process of de- 

 composition. But we are also prepared to forego 

 part of these advantages, if they cannot be secured, 

 {and where foul stuffiias been grown in tlie hay or 

 straw that constitutes the principal part of long 

 manure, we are confident they cannot,) without run- 

 ning the great risk, or encountering the absolute 

 certainty of stocking our fields with the justly 

 dreaded weeds. In this case the gain from the 

 unrotted manure, is far more than counterbalanced 

 by the loss on the crop occasioned by the presence 

 of the weeds; to say nothing of ^he more serious 

 injury resulting from their, obtaining a foothold in 

 our fields yet free from them, an injury which half 

 a dozen ordinary crops would hardly compensate. 

 It, therefore, seems plain that a method that shall 

 destroy the seeds in the dung, before it shall be 

 applied to the soil must eventually be preferable 

 to one that leaves them free to vegetate, even 

 should some part of its efiiciency be lost in the 

 process. 



This destruction of all seeds in manure can be 

 effected by the great heat produced in dung by fer- 

 mentation, when that process is conducted under 

 circumstances favorable to its development; and to 

 do this it is only necessary that the decomposition 

 of the manure sliould bo carried on in tlie piles. It 

 is well known that the degree of heat. produced in 

 an ordinary hot bed, in which the manure is not 

 disturbed, would become destructive to all vegeta- 

 tion were the seeds planted upon it while the fer- 

 mentation was most active, or the heat not mitiga- 

 ted, and that it actually is so to all seeds that are 

 in the manure when placed in the bed. So certain 

 is tliis eflTect, that some have deemed it cheaper in 

 the end, to be at the expense of constructing hot 

 beds, for the sake of the maimre, rather than to use 

 common barnyard manure with its infinity of seeds 

 on the garden. All manure ferments in decompo- 

 sition, and consequently heats more or less ; but it 

 is only when made into piles, that the heat is sufli- 

 cient to destroy the vitality of the seeds it may 

 contain. If, therefore, farmers would adopt the 

 practice generally of heaping their manure eitlier 

 in the yard, or the field, and allowing the heat to 

 rise and remain sufficiently long to destroy the 



would be still better, from the yard as that always 

 contains a large quantity of salts in solution, and 

 would prove an effective ag well as valuable agent 

 in the process. Our farms are too valuable to be 

 surrendered to the dominion of these weeds witli- 

 out an effort to check or destroy them. The weed- 

 ing system as pract*,ed in England to keep their 

 grain and farms clean cannot be adopted here where 

 labor is so high ; but we can endeavor to prevent 

 these weeds going to seed, and we can prevent 

 their extension in the manure by destroying their 

 germination ; and there is no one who knows the 

 loss they would occasion, but will admit the object 

 is at least worth an effort. 



TO DESTROY THE GRAIN FLY. 



A gentleman has just communicated to us a 

 method of destroying the grain fly which will cost 

 but a very little, and which he thinks will not only 

 be effectual in saving a crop of grain, but if gen- 

 erally practised by farmers, will rid the country, in 

 a great measure, of this enemy. He observes that 

 he was lately e.Kamining a piece of wheat and was 

 surprised in finding only now and then a grain worm 

 in the hull, as they were generally very plenty ; 

 he inquired of the farmer the pause, who told him 

 that he had destroyed the flies by carrying pitch- 

 wood torches through his grain, commencing in the 

 evening as soon as it began to grow dark, and as 

 early in the season as the flies made their appear- 

 ance, and continuing the operation till the flies 

 were all destroyed or had fled, which was about six 

 or seven nights. As he passed through the grain, 

 he carried a pole that struck against the tops of 

 the grain, which caused them to fly up into the fire, 

 as is the general practice, with insects, when tliey 

 were either destroyed, or disabled by having their 

 wings burnt off so as to prevent their doing mis- 

 chief. This farmer said he was induced to try this 

 method as his neighbor last year saved his grain in 

 this manner, while others in the vicinity had theirs 

 greatly injured by the grain worm. 



A cheap apparatus can be made for destroying 

 flies in this manner, by which the business can be 

 done with great expedition. Take two long, light 



poles, and commencing two or three feet fiom the 

 seeds of weeds, &c., that might be in it, they would butt ends, cut them away so as to bring the butt 

 with the grain or grass seeds sown by him ; and i be certain of being freed from one of the most nearly to a point, then splice them together, lap- 

 thirdly, from that carried from the yard in maimres | prominent causes of the propagation of worthless ping about as far as they are cut away, and fasten 



and spread upon the soil; and it is unquestionably 

 owing to this last cause tliat we witness such a 

 rapid spread of some of thes; weeds on cultivated 

 land. The foul stuff grown with the hay or grain, 

 principally the hitter, ripens its seeds in the field, 

 is carted to the st.ick or the barn, fed outer thresh- 

 ed out and thrown into the yard, the seeds lie un- 

 hurt in the manure preparing for vegetation until 

 carted upon the ploughed fields for fallow or spring 

 crops, and ready to spring with vigor the moment 

 they come in contact with the earth. The weeds 

 may in a great measure be prevented by proper 

 precautions from ripening their seeds in the fields ; 

 the grain or grass seeds sown may be, and should 

 be, thoroughly cleaned or never put into the earth ; 

 but if the bad seeds get into the manure, there is 

 scarcely a possibility that they will not spread as 

 far, and into as many fields, as the manure is car- 

 ried. 



We are the advocates of the application of long 

 manure, unless some pressing reason forbids. It 

 clearly afibrds greater nourishment to crops than if 

 allowed to ferment and rot above the surface, and, 



plants. If the heaps were formed of alternate lay- 1 them with nails. In this manner a great length of 

 ers of vegetable mould, or swamp mud, and manure, pole may be had with but little weight, as it is to 



the mould or mud woiild absorb much of the ferti 

 lizing gases that without such precautions will es- 

 cape during the fermentation, and the whole mass 

 be rendered more valuable than without such mix- 

 ture. 



It is true the system here recommended would 

 add something at first to the labor necessary on the 

 farm ; but when the work required for keeping 

 down weeds in the field, or the ga,rden, or separa- 

 ting foul seeds from grain, is taken into considera- 

 tion, a very great saving in labor would undoubt- 

 edly be eftectcd, independent of the pleasure in 

 woridng a farm, and the additional value given to a 

 farm, free from the nuisances to which we have al- 

 luded. The only precaution tliat would seem ne- 

 cessary in this preparation of manure would be to 

 occasionally examine the heap of dung or compost, 

 and if the heat was like to be so great as to injure 

 the mass to open it to the air a little ; and if on 

 ^the contrary the fermentation should not be brisk 

 enough to add a little water to the pile, or what 



be carried by the middle. One pole may be used, 

 but it will not be on so good a principle for light- 

 ne.ss. We will give another method of making 

 this part of the apparatus, as it may be more con- 

 venient for fixing the fires. Take a very long 

 piece of board, straight on one edge, four or five 

 inches wide in the middle, with the other edge cut 

 away straight from the centre to about one inch 

 in width at the ends ; let the straight edge of this 

 board be up, and nail on to it another piece, lying 

 flat wise, of the same lenght, three or four inches 

 wide in the middle, and about one and a half inch 

 wide at the ends. This will be light and strong. 



These boards or poles are to be carried so as to 

 strike the tops of the grain and start the flies, and 

 the fires should be a little above the boards so as 

 not to burn the grain. When pitchwood can be 

 had it will be good for fires ; pieces can be fitted to 

 small holes bored into the poles or boards ; they 

 should be of sufficient length to bring the fire above 

 the wheat. Where pitchwood cannot conveniently 



