1909-]' 



Two Common Weeds. 



207 



horse, ass, or mule affected with or suspected, of parasitic 

 mange must keep that animal separate from others not 

 affected, and notify a police constable of the fact of the animal 

 being so affected or suspected. 



Goosefoot. — Among weeds of the annual species, few are 

 more troublesome to the farmer or gardener than Goosefoot 

 (Che nop odium album, L.). This plant, 

 Two Common Weeds- known also as Fat-hen, Meld-weed, 

 Goosefoot and Annual Lamb's Quarters, and in Canada 

 Sow Thistle. and the United States of America 

 as Pig-weed, is closely related to 

 the mangold and spinach, and may attain to three or 

 more feet in height. It occurs throughout the British 

 Islands. It grows erect (See Plate), is much branched, with 

 somewhat pointed and toothed narrow leaves up to three 

 inches in length, the leaf stalks being long and slender. The 

 flowers, which appear from July to September, are borne in 

 clusters on spikes placed in the axils of the leaves and termin- 

 ating each branch. They are small, greenish, and without 

 petals. The seeds are black and glossy, and Percival has 

 likened them in shape to a flattened bun. The colour of 

 the whole plant is rather light green, and it has the appear- 

 ance of being powdered with white or pinkish particles. The 

 seedling is of a silvery-green hue. 



Goosefoot grows freely in waste land, but is a gross feeder 

 and grows rapidly, and hence attains its greatest size and 

 vigour on good cultivated land, where it frequently occurs 

 in great quantity and gives much trouble, crowding and 

 choking the sown crops. It is especially plentiful among 

 potatoes and other root crops. Seed is produced in abund- 

 ance and may lie dormant in the soil, coming up, at 

 unexpected times. The seeds are often plentiful in com- 

 mercial samples of seeds of all kinds. 



Where Goosefoot occurs among cereal crops it may be 

 largely destroyed by surface cultivation with light harrows 

 when the cereal is two or three inches high, the latter being 

 deep-rooted compared with the weed, which in the young 

 seedling stage is easily loosened from the soil. Should the 



