5 WEEDS. 



If we include bad grasses as weeds, which we are 

 certainly bound to do, those of us whose connection 

 with the seed trade supply a means of knowing can 

 easily understand how largely the weed family may be, 

 and is, recruited from this source. Yorkshire fog. 

 Hassock-grass, useless Brome grasses. Couch or Scutch, 

 &c. &c., find their way in immense quantities into 

 land (where they should not be) through the medium of 

 dirty or badly-cleaned seeds. It is not alone the bad 

 grasses that are thus introduced, but many other weeds 

 more or less injurious, as may be seen from a study 

 of the details of this work. In the proper place the 

 reader can note how, for instance, we may — through 

 the medium of badly-cleaned Ryegrasses— get Oxeyed 

 Daisy, Buttercup, Trefoil, Large Dock, Sorrel Dock, 

 Eibgrass, Dragon-grass, &c. &c. Through impure 

 samples of the clovers we get Sorrel Dock and Eib- 

 grass in large quantities, Corn Chamomile, Haresfoot 

 Trefoil, and sometimes that worst pest of all, the 

 Clover Dodder. Along with the natural grasses we 

 may get Large Dock, Sorrel Dock, Brome grasses, 

 Hassock-grass, Self-heal, and sometimes Ergot. So if 

 we begin with perfectly clean land, and if there were 

 no other source from which weeds could be introduced, 

 we could soon accumulate a good stock by the use of 

 unclean seed alone. 



Writing on this subject, Mr. Carruthers, botanist to 

 the Eoyal Agricultural Society of England, says : " It 

 would be difficult to calculate the injury done to a 

 meadow by the introduction of Yorkshire fog, and of 

 the two Airas (Hassock-grass, &c.), which form so large 

 a portion of some of the mixtures " (that had been 

 sent in to him for examination). In mixtures for 



