lo WEEDS. 



production would naturally increase and extend the 

 evU. The fertility of the soil, combined with the 

 humidity of the climate, produces Thistles, Nettles, 

 Eagworts, &e., as large as bushes, and as profusely' 

 as if they had been sown for a crop. Whatever little 

 is done, and it is only a little, to remove weeds from 

 the fields, there is no attempt made, apparently, to 

 remove them from the waste corners, the roadsides, 

 the wide fences (known as "double ditches"), the 

 railway embankments, and such like; and in the 

 latter end of the autumn the gigantic Nettles, 

 luxuriant Eagworts, and great flaunting Thistles send- 

 ing their down forth into the breeze, are conspicuous 

 objects of the landscape. Eegistrar-General Donnelly, 

 in his Irish Agricultural Abstract of 1874, stated his 

 opinion that "until legislation affords some remedy 

 to those who keep their land free from weeds against 

 such parties as allow weeds to grow and seed, the 

 practice of clean agriculture in Ireland cannot be 

 hoped for." 



Most people have noticed the beautiful parachute- 

 like apparatus attached to the seeds of tie Thistle, 

 Dandelion, and other weeds, by which they are capable 

 of being wafted miles away from where the parent 

 plant grew. Again, the seeds of Yorkshire fog and 

 those of the Aira family (Hassock-grass or Bull-Snouts) 

 are so light that they can be blown by the wind to a 

 considerable distance. Bearing those things in mind, 

 one can realise to some extent what damage can be 

 done by even one foul field in a district, or by neglected 

 waste spots, railway or canal embankments, on which 

 weeds are allowed to grow. 



