—— eee 
CHARLOCK. 
= 
_ of these crops infest each other. 
_ Musrarp.—The wild radish, Raphanus raphan- 
_ wstrum, an annual weed of the radish genus, is 
somewhat frequently called charlock, and fully 
| contests with the corn charlock mustard the in- 
_ gloriousness of being a troublesome weed. Three 
012 
annual; and sometimes, in spite of all precau- 
tion, especially in fields which have been dressed 
with police manure, occurs in so great profusion 
as, when in flower, to spread a sheet of yellow- 
ness athwart the whole of the corn crop. Its 
stem is rough, and usually about 20 inches high; 
its leaves are rough and sublyrate; its pods have 
the appearance of being swollen, and are about 
three times as long as their slender two-edged 
beaks; and its seeds are multangular and smooth. 
When it infests a drill-sown crop, it ought to be 
destroyed by the hand-hoe; and even when it 
|| infests broadcast crops, it may, in some instances, 
be pulled up by hand. When it is permitted to 
grow to maturity, its seeds, in the course of the 
labours of the barn, ought to be carefully and 
thoroughly separated from the corn with which 
they are intermixed ; and when they exist in any 
considerable quantity, they may be sold, along 
with rape-seeds or any other oleiferous seeds, for 
crushing. 
Black mustard, Sinapis nigra, another indi- 
genous annual of the mustard genus, is also 
sometimes called charlock. But both of two 
native varieties of this, the common black, and 
the turgid black, are cultivated plants, and 
usually grow to the height of four feet, and 
ought no more to infest corn-crops than any two 
See the article 
varieties of it, with respectively yellow, white, 
and purple flowers, grow wild in Britain; and all 
| infest corn-fields, and bloom in June and July. 
Its stem is beset with rigid hairs or bristles, and 
usually attains a height of about 20 inches ; its 
lower leaves are lyrate, its upper ones are stalk- 
| ed, and both have a glaucous green colour, and 
are beset with hairs or bristles ; and its pods are 
smooth, one-celled, and jointed, and contain each 
from three to eight seeds. When it cannot be 
weeded out, and exists in considerable proportion, 
its seeds ought to be separated, and may be sold 
and used, in the same manner as those of the 
corn charlock mustard —Plants of rape, Brassica 
napus, when growing wild, or when rising from 
stray seeds of cultivated rape, are also sometimes 
called charlock ; but besides being biennials, they 
'| affect different soils from either the mustard or 
the wild radish, and are of comparatively rare 
occurrence, and but inconsiderable annoyance. 
The mustards and the wild radish not only 
impoverish the soil, and rob useful plants of a 
large portion of their nourishment, and occasion 
great trouble and damage by the intermixation 
of their seeds with corn, but also afford nutri- 
ment and protection to the turnip beetle, and 
preserve it in the ground during the years of a 
| rotation which intervene between the crops of 
“Hew weeds,” remarks Mr. Shier, “are | 
turnips. 
so difficult to deal with as Sinapis arvensis and 
Raphanus raphanistrum. Their seeds are ex- 
tremely tenacious of life; a deeper ploughing 
than usual, will often, in lands long infested with 
them, cover the whole surface of the ground, the 
seeds having lain dormant for many years. Some 
instances have come under my own observation, 
where the seeds of the Sinapis arvensis have ve- 
getated freely after being buried for more than 
40 years. These weeds appear in greatest abun- 
dance among the white crop taken after lea, and 
in the land preparing for fallow crops. In the 
latter case, when the weather is favourable, two 
or more crops of weeds may be made to vegetate, 
and be destroyed in a single season. In the for- 
mer case, they are more difficultly subdued ; but 
a turn of the harrows, after the grain plants are 
in their second leaf, will destroy a great many, 
and hand-weeding must do the rest. All the 
plants of sinapis, however, that escape, ripen, 
and mostly sow their seeds before the white crop 
can be gathered in. In some seasons, it happens 
that a considerable number of cruciferous weeds 
must be allowed to stand, and are cut and housed 
along with the grain ; and unless their seeds are 
carefully separated from the dressed grain by a 
seed-sieve, they may be again sown with the 
seed-corn. The pod of the raphanus is indehis- 
cent, that is, it does not burst as that of the 
sinapis does, but breaks into joints, each contain- 
ing aseed. These may be separated by what is 
termed a bere-riddle, through which the grain 
passes while the joints are retained. The best 
winnowing-machines are now provided with both 
these sifters.” 
Mr. Lisle observes, that cold wet lands are 
always more subject to charlock than chalky or 
dry and light lands; and he assigns as the 
reason, that charlock-seeds, in consequence of 
being very oily, resist putrefaction, are not easily 
opened or penetrated by moisture, and require 
for their germination a longer and steadier wet- 
ness than usually occurs on chalky or sandy lands. 
When charlock-seed and turnip-seed are sown at 
the same time, the charlock is seven or eight 
days later in appearing above ground than the 
turnips; and as the two plants closely resemble 
each other in appearance, and are very liable to 
be mistaken for each other in weeding, this fact 
ought to be of some practical value to a farmer. 
A person who had vast quantities of charlock in 
a field of barley, mowed the whole when the 
charlock was in flower, as low as he could with- 
out cutting off more than the tops of the blades 
of barley; and he had the satisfaction of seeing 
the corn-crop rising quite above the weed, and 
of reaping from the field four quarters of. barley 
per acre. Mr. Marshall found a field of neglected 
and unhoed young turnips overgrown with Sina- 
pis arvensis and Brassica napus a yard high and 
as yellow as a rape field; and, for the sake of ex- 
periment, ordered part of it to be mown high 
enough to prevent injury to the turnips, and low 
