WEED. 



cither by eating it down while young with (heep, or pulling 

 it up by the hand. This laft fliould be done when the 

 ground is moid, in order that no confiderable fibres may be 

 loft or left in the land, as if there are the roots will ftrike 

 again. See Senecio Jacobxa. 



Mcadoiv Jorrel is a plant common in meadows, and efpe- 

 cially where the foil is ftrong and rather wet : it is a coarfe 

 plant that is injurious by its (hade, and feeds in good grafs- 



, lands. See Rumex Acetofa. 



Wood or meadow anemone is a plant common in meadows, 

 though difregarded by farmers ; the whole plant is faid to 



1 be acrid. Withering aflerts, that when (heep that are un- 



I accuftomed to it eat it, it brings on a bloody-flux. See 



1 Anemone Nemorofa. 



I Eye-bright is a plant common in paftures, and refufed 

 by cattle in general ; confequently occupying the place of a 

 better plant. See Euphrasia Officinalis and Odonthis. 



I Dandelion is a difagreeable plant, though common in 

 grafs-lands in moft diitrifts : it is faid to be confiderably 

 diuretic, and on that account may probably have a good 

 efFeft on cattle at firft going to grafs : it is coarfe, but 

 good in hay with graifes. See Leontodon Taraxacum. 

 Tarroiu, and fneeze-wort, are plants common in paftures, 



I but indifferent to cattle-ftock. The former has been recom- 

 mended for poor land. The common yarrow has been found 



1 plentifully intermixed with the herbage in the vale part of 



i the county of Gloucefter, where much fed with horfes. 

 Some have, it is faid, fuppofed, that cattle are not averfe to 

 it ; but it has been obferved, that this weed has remained 

 uneaten until every blade of grafs has been cropped clofe to 

 the ground, and therefore that it (hould be extirpated by 



1 the fpade or fome other means, fuch as the three-pronged 



' fork, at the expence of manual labour. See Achillea 



' Millefolium and Ptarmica. 



! Orchifes of feveral forts are plants that are common in 

 moft meadows, having broad, entire, fpotted leaves in gene- 



' ral, and large bunches of pale or purple flowers. They 

 generally remain untouched by moft, or all foi-ts of cattle- 



j flock. See Orchis Maculata, BifoUa, Sec. 



Plants of this fort have hitherto been much too little 

 examined and inquired into, in fo far as relates to their 

 utility and importance, or the contrary, for the ufes of the 

 farmer, to afford any thing fatisfaftory on the fubjeft ; but 

 that a great many fuch plants fhould be rooted out of grafs- 

 lands of different kinds there can be no fort of doubt. This 

 would render the meadows and paftures much better for the 

 purpofes of hay, and the pafturing and feeding of live-ftock 

 of every fort, and be greatly beneficial to the farmer in 

 many ways. 



Weeds injurious in 'wajle and uninclofed Lands. — It is ftated 

 by the writer of the paper on weeds, that thofe confidered 

 as particularly hurtful to fuch land, are not very numerous; 

 for though many forts of plants, ufelefs as the food of do- 

 meftic animals, grow there, yet, as there is no pofTibility of 

 introducing any thing better until fuch lands are appro- 

 priated and improved by cultivation, they can hardly be 

 conceived as noxious, fo long as nothing better can be put 

 in their ftead. That, as fuch lands in their prefent condi- 

 tion are ufeful only as (heep-walks, or for producing fuel, 

 the bettering of them, in the former rcfpeft, is an objcft de- 

 ferving of attention, particularly as fuch amelioration would 

 render them of greater value in cafe of inclofure, and would 

 much fhorten the bufinefs of bringing them into the ftate of 

 improvement. See Waste Land. 



The weeds that encumber fuch lands, and reduce their 

 value as fhccp-walks, are confidered as of two kinds ; the 

 common upland rubbiih, and the bog produce of plants : 



the former fmothers the land, fo as to prevent the growth 

 of better herbage ; and the latter are generally hurtful to 

 animals that feed on them, either from their own nature, or 

 becaufe the land on which they grow is uncomfortable for 

 and unwholefome to the health of them, efpecially to 

 fheep. 



Upland weeds are all thofe that rife in high barren fitua- 

 tions, and which chiefly confift of heaths of different forts ; 

 furze or gorfe, the petty whin, or hen-gorfe, and broom, 

 but which is more commonly met with in neglefted dry 

 lands of the arable kind : thefe (hould all, it isfaid, where 

 the ground is of tolerable ftaple, or depth of mould, be 

 burnt off, or grubbed up, early in the fpring ; and if the 

 land be afterwards fown with grafs-feeds of the hay kind in 

 moift weather, it will much improve the herbage : the fern 

 (liould alfo be mown, and carried off in the fummer, the 

 value of it as litter being well worth the labour and trouble. 

 See Erica, Ulex Ciiropivus, Genista Anglica, Spartium 

 Sceparium, and Pteris Aquilina. 



Bog weeds are thofe that arife in fwampy places, and are 

 caufed by ftagnant moifture or wetnefs, being principally 

 cotton graffes, matt-grafs, rufhes of feveral forts, red-rattle 

 or loufe-wort, marfh, St. Peter's-wort, kingfpear, which 

 laft two are of but little confequence in themfelves : they, 

 however, indicate boggy land ; and in their company are often 

 found purple-flowered money-wort, fedge graffes of feveral 

 forts, &c. : all which would give way to better herbage, 

 upon the ftagnant wetnefs of fuch bogs being removed, 

 which (hould, it is faid, be done by a rate, levied on the in- 

 habitants of the neighbourhood, having right of common 

 upon fuch waftes. See Eriophorum Polyjlachion and 

 Vaginntum, Nardus StriBa, JuNCUs, Pedicularis Sylvatica, 

 Hypericum Clodes, Narthecium OJfifragum, Anagallis 

 Tenetla, and Carex. 



The difeafe, termed the rot, in (heep, which fo commonly 

 arifes in thefe fituations, has been often attributed by ftock- 

 farmers and others to the fun-dew, mar(h penny-wort, and 

 common butter-wort, weeds found in fuch lands ; but it is 

 more probably caufed by the flat infeft known by the name 

 of flake, fafciola hepatica, which is not unfrequently met 

 with in fuch watery grounds, fticking to different parts of 

 the plants, and which has been difcovered in the difeafcd 

 livers and bile dufts of ilieep thus affefted. See Drosera 

 Anglica, Hydrocotyle Inundata, isfc. 



The writer juft noticed fuggefts, that if the country 

 (hould not yet be ripe or ready for inclofing all the commons 

 and wafte lands, the improvement of their ftaple by mea- 

 fures of this kind, by deftroying weeds and introducing 

 better herbage, by removing the wetnefs of the bogs, and 

 deftroying the aquatic weeds growing thereon, would better 

 their prefent ftate, and improve their value to the pubHc, 

 would render them capable of maintaining a greater number 

 of better fheep, and preferve the ftock in better health, as 

 well as render the land more (ufceptible of a rapid and eafy 

 improvement by cultivation, whenever the time may arrive 

 for their inclofure, and for fuch full amendment of their 

 condition. 



IFfeds injurious in Hedges and other fuch Fences. — It is re- 

 marked in the paper on weeds and weeding, that all kinds 

 of them are hurtful to young hedges, which conftantly re- 

 quire to be well cleaned and freed from them for three or 

 more years after planting, as otherwife the young quick or 

 other plants would be choked and deftroyed ; and that there 

 are alfo fome kinds of weed-plants which very much injure 

 old full-grown hedge-fences. That many kinds of weeds 

 growing in hedges are a great nuifance if the feeds be fuf- 

 fered to ripen, becaufe fuch feeds are hable to be carried into 



cultivated 



