'■g"^ 



18 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMEK. 



Jan. 



cess. Five times, at intervals of six days, did I, 

 ■with a sharp scythe, shave it off; but the pro- 

 cess, vyLile it destroyed every vestige of white 

 and red clover, timothy and blue grass among 

 which it grew, seemed to stimulate the ijlantain, 

 and accelerate its growth; and it appiared, 

 finally, to have taken complete possession of the 

 ground fr.m which I tried to d slodge it. Is there 

 no way to eradicate this troublesome weed but 

 through the instrumentality of the plow ? Then, 

 alas ! for our beautiful lawn, (a) 



YELlrW DOCK. 



Some eighteen months ago, while on a visit in 

 Scott county, say twelve or fifteen miles from 

 Jacksonville, one of irs old citizena invited me 

 to ride with l.im out to what is called the "North 

 Prairie," promi;ing at the same time to show me 

 a bjdy of land equal in beauty and fertility to 

 anj' I had ever seen. 



The day was fine, the roads admirable, and the 

 country through which we passed, magnificent. 

 We visited the splendid farms of the Messrs. 

 Hitts, strolled among their herds of broadback^d 

 Durham?, and paid our respects to their famous 

 twenty-five hundred dollar bull. Returning, I 

 freely acknowledged that my friend'a description, 

 glowing as it was, did not come up to the gran- 

 deur of the landscape; "but," said I, " there is 

 one drawback that, to my eye, mars the beauty 

 of it all." 



" What is that ?" inquired my friend. 



" Why, the everlasting quantity of this con- 

 founded dock that you see almost everywhere 

 around us." 



"Well, really," said he "I never noticed it 

 particularly before. Why, just see ; it is in the 

 fields, on the high ground, along the swsles, by 

 the road side, along the lan^s ; and look at that 

 flour shiug bunch in that door yard. I've no 

 doubt now of its beirg pretty thick in my own 

 pisturrs, too." 



' I dare say," said I, " and it seems to be in 

 a fair way to take possession of the country," 



Now, the dock is a great nuisance — at least I 



so regard it — but it is compara.ively easily de- 

 stroyed. Cut it off about half an inch below 



the surface of (he ground three or four times 

 duiing the summer, let the last cutting be done 

 very late in the season, and in a year or two it 

 will disappear. 



Have you ever been struck with this peculiari- 

 ty belonging to the dock, to-wit : the long period 

 in which its capsules retain their seed. If a 

 stalk goes to seed, and remains u-disturbed 

 hrough the winter, not a seed will fall from it, 

 and in the spring it naay be gathered and de- 



stroyed, without any danger of ecattering the 

 seed in the operation. 



Digging up the dock by hand is a tedious lus- 

 iness, but the tedium may be very much relieved 

 in this way : You take a survey of your meadow, 

 and, after a little calculation, you conclude you 

 see from four hundred to five hundred roots 

 around you The ground is soft, the weather 

 warmish, and a slight symptom of the " spring 

 fever" seems to be crawling about the spinal 

 column. But you say to yourself, now I'll take 

 my spade and dig up one hundred of those dock 

 roots. The task is soon accompli-hed, but the 

 number was found in a much smaller area than 

 you at first imagined. This awakens curiosity, 

 and you begin to wonder how many hundreds 

 there are, and so you make up your mind to find 

 out by actual count, and thus you proceed by 

 spells, through the week, perhaps, until you have 

 dug up thousands, (b) 



Iq my next, I j-hall want to say a word in re- 

 lation to neighbors' duties, in regard to the weed 

 question. John R. 



(a) Wc know of nothing better than the hoc 

 to destroy this weed, cut it up just below 

 the surface at the time of flowering'. As 

 blue grass is slow to come in, we would add 

 white clover and herdsgrass to fill up the 

 spaces until the blue grass shall have taken 

 complete possession of the lawn. Plantain 

 and white clover are alike in one respect, 

 they appear to flourish all the better for be- 

 ing trampled, and it is possible that a 

 heavy seeding with white clover might pre- 

 vent the plantain from taking possession. 

 Plantain does not like shade as well as the 

 clover, and the herdsgrass might thus be 

 made use of to hold the plantain in check, 

 We have little personal experience with this 

 weed in the west, and will be glad to hear 

 from those who have. 



(b) Yellow dock is a great pest, and we re- 

 gret to say that it has already too £rm a 

 foothold on our farms. When it once gets 

 into the meadow, its spread from there is 

 rapid. Nothing but the spade and plow will 

 root it out. Hundreds of our readers will 

 no doubt thank our correspondent for call- 

 ing attention to it. 



We shall be glad to hear from you otten> 

 under any signature that you may choose. — 



Ed. 



