EXTERMINATION OF WEEDS 587 



bud is furnished with roots and develops into a separate plant, 

 and the naovement of the implement distributes them over the 

 field. 



Ex. 272. — Repeat Ex. 271, wilh portions of the underground parts of couch 

 grass, mint, and stinging nettle. 



On pasture and meadow the cutting is done with the scythe 

 and spud. Much can be accomplished by a judicious and 

 thoughtful application of these implements, and many kinds of 

 obstinate perennial weeds can be abolished by their aid. 



Depasturing with certain kinds of stock is a means of keeping 

 weeds in check. Close feeding with sheep is practically equiva- 

 lent to cutting the plants, and many CompositEe, such as yarrow 

 and ragwort, are kept down or destroyed in this manner as 

 well as a large number of other weeds. 



(iii) Total Removal of the Plants. — The most complete eradi- 

 cation of weeds is brought about by the actual removal of each 

 plant as a whole. 



Annuals and biennials are usually destroyed by the methods 

 previously mentioned, and it is only necessary to resort to total 

 removal of these plants in special cases — for example, charlock 

 and thistle in a cereal crop — where seeding must be prevented at 

 all cost in order to prevent future trouble, and where cutting with 

 the scythe or hoe is not feasible. Perennials, however, must 

 always be completely removed out of the ground if complete 

 freedom from their presence is required. 



They may be taken out of the ground by various means, hand 

 pulling, digging up with spade and fork, and loosening with plough, 

 hoe, or similar implements, followed by subsequent collection 

 with harrows, are the methods usually adopted. 



(e) The draining of land always m.akes an alteration in the 

 character of the vegetation upon it. 



Undrained marshy land or ground, with a superabundance of 

 stagnant water in it, has its own particular flora, among which 

 sedges, rushes, equisetums or horsetails, and other useless plants 



