S04 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
Fig. 1. — COUCH-GRASS. 
Talks About Weeds- ...II. 
Fig. 2. 
In these notes upon weeds we shall not fol- 
low any botanical order, but take them mainly 
with reference to the season. The first one we no- 
tice is Couch grass, (Tntiruia rejjens,) fig. 1, which 
is, in some localities, a most troublesome weed. 
Where it gets full possession of the ground, it 
will overrun and occupy it to the exclusion 
of every thing else. It is also known in dif- 
ferent sections as: Quack-grass, Quitch-grass, 
Twitch-grass, Dog-grass, Wheat-grass, etc. The 
last-mentioned name is given from its resem- 
blance to wheat, both belonging to the same 
genus. The stems are about two feet high, and 
bear a head somewhat like that of wheat, though 
longer and more slender. Unlike wheat this is 
a perennial, and one of its most remarkable 
characters— that which makes it so difficult 
to eradicate — is its long underground stem, 
which is commonly mistaken for a root, and 
runs just below the surface. This underground 
stem throws out roots from each joint, and has 
at the same point, a bud or eye from which a 
stem may spring. It will be seen that every inch 
or so of this stem is capable of becoming a 
plant, as shown in fig. 2, which is a rooted layer 
— a piece of stem with a root and an eye ready 
to start. This ex- 
plains the great 
difficultyin exter- 
minating Couch- 
grass. If the 
cultivator is run through a tuft of the plant, it 
may tear away the above-ground portion, but 
there will be left below, a large number of frag- 
ments of these underground stems, each one of 
which will make a new plant. From the man- 
ner in which the plant multiplies, it will be seen 
that merely scraping the surface with a hoe will 
not destroy it ; this only causes a dozen plants 
to spring up where there was one before, and 
the work will shortly have to be done over 
again. There must be no half work, for nothing 
short of actual eradication will get rid of it. 
Perhaps the best plan is to run a cultivator 
through the soil and follow it with a fork, and 
carefully pick out all fragments and lay' them 
in the sun to dry. With this, as with all trouble- 
some weeds, much labor is caused by neglect 
when the plant first makes its appearance in the 
fields. A few weeds do not present a formi- 
dable appearance, but they are quietly laying 
the foundation for much after trouble. In 
some parts of England, a large part of the 
expense of cultivation is due to the labor de- 
voted to the eradication of the Couch grass. 
The grass is liked by cattle, and it is raised 
in some parts of the South for pasturage. 
Bind-Wked. — We introduce here a figure of 
a weed which is exceedingly troublesome in Eu- 
rope, and which has become established in some 
places in this country. We have some native 
plants which are called " bind-weeds," but the 
name properly belongs to this— the Convolvulus 
arvensis. T^ie plant is very much like a small 
Morning Glory, to which it is closely related. 
The stem grows two feet or more high, and 
twines around other plants. The shape of the 
leaves is shown in the figure, which is about 
half the natural size. The roots are peren- 
nial, and very long and very difficult to destroy. 
It soon spreads rapidly, and should be extermi- 
nated, at whatever cost of labor, as soon as it 
makes its appearance. It comes from Europe, 
but we have a native plant which is a near 
relative, known as the Wild Morning Glory, 
and Large or Hedge Bind-AVeed. This is much 
larger than the other, and will run to the bight 
of 8 or 10 feet. The flowers are about as large 
as those of the common Morning Gloiy. It 
Fig. 3. — BIND-WEED. 
grows in low moist places, and sometimes be- 
comes troublesome in cultivated grounds. Fre- 
quently repeated hoeing down is the only suc- 
cessful remedy which we have seen suggested. 
._ — ■ «« ■ — .-« 
Sugar from Unripe Cane. 
L. F. Hadley, of Chicago, 111., who has had 
considerable experience with the Chinese Sugar 
Cane, says, in a communication to the Prairie 
Farmer, that the time to make sugar, commences 
when the cane begins to mature, and ends when 
the cane is full} 7 ripe, after which it will make 
good molasses, but not sugar. Several years' 
trial has convinced him that this is the case, and 
in illustration he gives the results from cane cut 
just as the seed was beginning to turn brown, 
which granulated finely, while the syrup from 
the rest of the field, cut when fully ripe, refused 
to " sugar off." He recommends to cut early, 
and work it up as fast as possible, but thinks 
it will make sugar late, if cut before fully ripe. 
Testing the Quality of Milk. 
m 
The real value of a cow to the dairy farmer 
is not in the number of quarts of milk she will 
give, but in the number of pounds of butter she 
will afford. There is a greater difference in 
this respect than is generally supposed ; some 
WALES 
MILK 
Fig. 1.— LACTOMETER. 
cows making twice or even three times as much 
butter as others. Several methods have been 
proposed for testing the qualities of milk,— one 
of these is by the use of the hydrometer. The 
construction of the instrument will be under- 
stood by the engraving, (fig. 2.) A small glass 
tube, with a bulb at one end, has a wooden float 
fixed upon it. Shot are placed in the bulb in 
sufficient quantity to sink it in water to the point 
marked 100 on the stem. The instrument is 
then put into pure milk, and the point at which 
it stands in that, is also marked on the stem, 
and the place between the two marks divided 
into 100 degrees. As pure milk is 
heavier than water, the instrument 
will be buoyed up more in the one 
than in the other, and it at first 
sight would appear to show the 
value of the milk. But the speci- 
fic gravity of cream is less than 
that of milk, and a specimen of 
milk very rich in cream, would show 
lighter by the hydrometer than a 
poorer sample. Though this instru- 
ment would be serviceable to the 
city consumer in detecting adul- 
teration with any considerable 
amount of water, it will not serve 
the dairyman to indicate the butter- 
producing qualit}' of the milk of 
different cows. The old lactome- 
ter, which was invented a half cen- 
tury ago, has not been superseded 
in practical worth by any recent con- 
trivance. This tests the value of 
the milk by showing the amount 
of cream afforded by each sample, 
and consists, (fig. l,)of a series of glass tubes of 
equal size, closed at the bottom; they are 
about a foot long and one third of an inch 
in diameter, and graduated by markings on the 
glass. These are to be filled to an equal bight 
with milk, and after standing for the cream to 
rise, the comparative value of the milk of differ- 
rent cows can be seen at a glance. An appara- 
tus of this kind is not only useful as showing 
the difference in cows, but also in testing the 
butter-producing value of different kinds of 
feed. These tubes are cheap, and may be 
bought at most of the agricultural warehouses. 
