■;^w>s:==- 



DKVOTUD TO AQJRECUIiTTJRE, HORTICUIiTUKE, AlfD KTNDBED AKTS. 



NEW SERIES. 



Boston, Aimist, 1870. VOL. lY.— NO. 8. 



K. P. EATON & CO., PLBLisiiERS, 

 Office, Si Merchants' Row. 



MOjS'THLY. 



i^^-i^^ST'l^— 



DESTSOY THE WEEDS. 



^E MILLION of 



dollars, large as 

 tbe sum is, 

 J j^ would not prob- 

 ^ ably pa}' for the 

 i labor annually 

 expended in the 

 New England 

 Spates, in exter- 

 minating weeds, 

 ^ whose seeds 

 were sown with 

 the grass seeds. 

 Hence, in pre- 

 landi for laying 

 thtm down to grass, no 

 operation in the work is 

 so essential as that of securing 

 such seeds as it is desired to sow, 

 and those only. 

 There is only one way of securing this, 

 by cultivators, and that is by owning and 

 using, in each neighborhood of farmers, a 

 good separator, which will separate ten bush- 

 els of seed in an hour, and divide them into a 

 dozen different boxes, if there are as many 

 kinds of seeds. Such a separator may be 

 found at the agricultural warehouses, and 

 would be cheap in any of our farming towns 

 at almost any price. 

 Our fields are now white with the blossoms 



of the ox-eye daisies ; they cover thousands of 

 acres, and in many instances almost to the en- 

 tire exclusion of the grasses. It has becosje 

 a great nui>ance and source of loss to tbe 

 farmer. Cattle may taste it occasionally, but 

 only taste it, and refuse it as winter feed, 

 when it is a hard, bitter plant. It propagates 

 itself with great rapidity, appearing first in 

 stools, and throwing up a cluster of stems 

 some two feet high, but soon extends itsslf all 

 over the ground, and throwing up single stera-i 

 in every direction. It takes the place of the 

 grasses, and is an expensive nuisance. 



Another, and one scarcely less annoying 

 and expensive, is field sorrel. Well was it 

 designated as "Nature's grave clothes." It 

 piobably covers thousands of a'"res of sandy 

 loam lands in Massachusetts at this moment. 

 But it is not confined to such lands ; it finds 

 its way into heavy clays, clay loams, and into 

 every soil that is cultivated. It has creeping 

 roots, which pervade (he soil in every direc- 

 tion, and any portion of them left behind will 

 soon throw up a new plant. 



Then we have the sour dock, curled dock, 

 narrow and broad-leaved dock, all unsightly 

 and troublesome weeds. They hive long and 

 stout roots, which require the strength of a 

 strong man to pull them up. Cutting them 

 off two or three times in the course of a sum- 

 mer seems only to encourage them. 



Still another is the chicory or succory plant, 

 one of the most persistent and obstinate grow- 



