THE CULTIVATOR. 
After it has once obtained large possession of a 
field, it is folly to think of weeding by hand. The 
only remedy is to discontinue the culture of wheat, 
and resort for several years to autumnal and 
spring plowing, in connection with annual crops, 
and hoed ones, as frequently introduced in the 
rotation as practicable. 
The Canada Thistle, unlike the red-root, in¬ 
creases mainly by the extension of its roots, and 
hence the great object in effecting its destruction, 
is to cut off all supplies through the leaves, and 
reduce it by it by famine. If the growth of the 
foliage can be completely prevented for a few 
months, every portion of the roots will necessarily 
perish and decay. On heavy and compact soils, 
clear of stones and stumps, the work of destruc¬ 
tion may be effected in tire most complete man¬ 
ner in a single season, by turning the thistles un¬ 
der about once a month by deep plowing. Any 
other way of smothering, such as cutting every 
plant twice a week just below the surface, cover¬ 
ing with a thick coat of tan, sawdust, or with 
slabs, will accomplish the purpose; but plowing is 
the cheapest and most wholesale mode. On stony 
or gravelly soils, it will generally be found insuffi¬ 
cient, and must be combined with constant hoeing 
or other efficacious remedies, previous to which 
seeding with grass, sowed very thickly, so as to 
form a strong turf, will be of great service. Mow¬ 
ing just at the period of blossoming, on the suppo¬ 
sition that the plant at that time has nearly ex¬ 
hausted the root, has been repeatedly recommend¬ 
ed, but unfortunately is but a partial remedy, 
as there are great numbers of roots and new plants, 
forming at all stages of growth up to this time, 
and which, had the plants been cut or smothered 
while yet small, could have made no progress. 
We need not go into detail with the modes of 
destroying other weeds, because all of them may 
be included under the same two heads, represented 
by the red root and Canada fhistle—one, increas¬ 
ing by seed, the other by extension of root. Those 
which prevail most in pastures and meadows, are 
commonly best exterminated by a rotation of such 
crops as do not favor their increase; and on the 
other hand, many others are checked or smothered 
by a heavy seeding with grass. With some, as 
chess, cockle, 8tc., especial care must be taken to 
sow clean seed. Chess is remarkably insidious in 
the numberless ways in which its seeds get posses¬ 
sion of the soil, besides its rapid increase under 
favorable circumstances, which has in some in¬ 
stances been five thousand fold in a single season, 
making five thousand plants the second season, 
twenty-five million the third, over a hundred thou¬ 
sand million the fourth, and so on, provided every 
facility is given to its growth. Wild mustard, like 
red root, increases by seed, which if buried deep, 
will remain dormant a long period, ready to spring 
into life when the soil is turned up; but being an 
annual, instead of a biennial like red-root, annual 
sown crops are not favorable to its destruction, but 
it is best effected by hoed crops, or by frequent 
plowings and harrowings. 
The scythe, the hoe, the plow, and the cultiva- 
tor, if kept in motion, should be looked to as the 
great exterminators of weeds, but there are certain 
crops that often prove powerful auxiliaries. Dense 
grass is unfriendly to nearly all weeds; buckwheat 
often exerts a cleansing effect on perennial rooted 
creepers, by its smothering influence, besides the 
mellowing tendency of its deep roots; but we have 
never seen anything equal to corn sown in thick 
drills, in reducing both annual and perennial 
weeds, as well as the tenaoious grasses. SdWn at 
the rate of three bushels per acre in furrows three 
feet asunder, and then covered with the harrow; 
dressed with the one-,horse cultivator when a foot 
high, with no hoeing, it has left the land in au¬ 
tumn as clean as a newly plowed field, which with¬ 
out its effectual shade would have presented an 
unbroken crop of weeds and grass as thick as they 
could grow. —*s>— 
To Clean Chess out of Seed Wheat. 
We commend the following to every wheat- 
grower who believes that wheat will turn to chess. 
The simple fact that the writer (and many others 
have done the same thing,) has eradicated chess 
from his farm, is sufficient to show the fallacy of 
the popular belief that “ chess is only degenerated 
wheat.” We have given great attention to this 
matter for more than twenty years, and we have 
never been able to find an instance of the conver¬ 
sion of wheat to chess; and the result of these in¬ 
vestigations has convinced ns that no such in¬ 
stance af transmutation ever did occur. We have 
often alluded to it, because we believe the point 
one of great practical importance', for so long as 
a man believes in the doctrine of transmutation, 
he will not take the pains necessary to extirpate 
chess from his grounds. 
Messrs, Editors —I have thought of sending 
you something like the following, for the last 
twenty years and over, but always put it off. To 
clean all the chess out, take the riddles out of the 
fanning mill, leaving the screen in—take off the 
rod that shakes the riddles and screen; pour the 
wheat slowly into the hopper with a basket or a 
half-bushel; turn the mill a little quicker than for 
ordinary cleaning, and every grain of chess will 
be blown out. unless where three chess seeds stick 
together, which is sometimes the case with the 
top seeds. 
If every farmer will clean his seed wheat in 
this way, I will warrant that -wheat will never 
turn to chess after the land is once clear of it ; 
but the difficulty will be to get the farmer to try 
it. It is too simple to be believed. I have seen 
some men who stand high as agriculturists, whom 
I could not make believe it, until I went to their 
barns and showed them that it could be done, and 
that effectually. This fact itself is worth much 
to wheat farmers, if they will only try it. Two 
men will clean from 10 to 15 bushels per hour. 
If the wheat is light, say weighing from 50 to 55 
lbs. per bushel, considerable wheat will blow away 
with the chess; but with such wheat as we raise 
here, weighing from 60 to 64 lbs. per bushel, 
little if any of the -wheat will be blown out. In 
some cases it is better to raise the hind end of the 
fanning mill about two inches from the floor; more 
wind can be given, and not blow aw r ay the wheat. 
Every man that tries this will find it answers, and 
every reader of your paper should tell his neigh¬ 
bor that don’t read. 
I have not raised a wine-glassful of chess in more 
than twenty years. Before that I had lots of it, 
and was sure wheat turned chess. 
A very extensive wheat raiser has agreed to 
come this fall, and make a part of one of my 
fields grow chess without sowing it, for which I 
have agreed to give him the remainder of my crop. 
He may destroy the wheat, but chess he cannot 
make it. John Johnston. Near Geneva, May 
30, 1853. 
