42) 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
May  12,  190''. 
Tk  Destruction  of  Small  Weeds. 
“Weeds  and  their  Suppression”  is  the  title  of  an  article 
by  Mr.  John  Percival,  M.A.,  in  the  “Journal  of  the  Board  of 
Agriculture,”  for  March,  1904.  As  weeds,  according  to  ivir. 
Percival,  include  charlock,  thistles,  and  couch,  it  is  evident  that 
he  is  undertaking  no  mean  task  in  showing  us  how  to  suppress 
them.  If  he  will  take  over  a  well-infected  field  of  sandy  soil, 
and  hand  it  over  to  us  four  years  hence  in  a  clean  condition,  at 
the  same  time  giving  us  full  details  of  his  experiment,  we 
shall  be  most  pleased  to  testify  to  the  success  of  his  methods. 
In  speaking  or  writing  of  weeds  it  is  most  necessary  to  differen¬ 
tiate  between  annuals  and  perennials.  The  latter,  which  consist 
chiefly  of  the  thistle  tribe  and  couch  grass,  cannot  be  dealt  with 
lightly,  whereas  the  annual  weeds,  such  as  charlock  and  poppies, 
may  be  easily  destroyed  if  attacked  at  the  right  moment. 
There  are  many  annual  weeds  which  are  more  or  less  harm¬ 
ful  to  grain  crops.  The  common  bird’s-eye,  more  generally  known 
as  “  winter  weed,”  ripens  early,  and  dies  away,  therefore 
making  little  interference  with  corn  crops  in  the  later  stages, 
yet  its  growth  and  maturity  must  have  a  material  effect  on  the 
crops  amongst  which  it  finds  its  habitat,  robbing  them,  as  it 
must,  of  both  air  and  nutriment.  We  may  state  wicliout  fear 
of  contradiction  that  no  weed  other  than  one  of  a  leguminous 
nature  can  be  grown  without  loss  of  fertility,  and  the  growth 
of  common  weeds  amongst  corn  crops  must  be  an  economic 
loss.  " 
Of  late  years  it  has  been  the  custom  in  many  counties  to 
vary  the  four-course  system  by  taking  a  crop  of  barley  or  oats 
after  the  wheat  stubble.  That  is  all  right  if  the  land  be  in 
good  condition  and  free  from  the  seed  of  annual  weeds,  other¬ 
wise  it  would  be  better  to  stick  to  the  four-course  system. 
Couch  grass  or  twitch  is  generally  considered  to  be  the  most 
noxious  of  farm  pests.  It  is  bad  enough  in  all  conscience  when 
it  is  well  established  on  congenial  soil,  but  when  drastically 
dealt  with  it  can  be  much  more  easily  got  rid  of  than  many 
other  forms  of  weed. 
The  common  corn  thistle  is  a  dreadful  pest  when  thoroughly 
well  established  on  limestone  soils.  Its  roots  burrow  into  the 
rocky  substratum,  and  nothing  but  diligent  ploughing  and 
hand-hoeing  will  keep  it  under,  whilst  eradication  is  well  nigh 
impossible.  Another  weed  most  difficult  to  master  is  the 
common  foalsfoot.  This  infests  heavy  land  as  well  as  peaty, 
low-lying  soil.  Where  its  roots  are  numerous  a  corn  crop  has 
a  poor  chance  of  coming  to  maturity.  Hoeing  will  stop  its 
growth  for  a  while,  but  it  soon  reappears.  Summer  fallowing, 
which  is  successful  in  getting  the  land  thoroughly  dried  through, 
is  the  only  sy.stem  by  wliich  foalsfoot  can  be  killed. 
Of  the  annual  weeds  the  poppy  and  the  charlock  are  the 
most  troublesome.  The  wild  po^^py  infests  all  soils  which  may 
be  called  light  or  dry.  Any  soil  which  lends  itself  readily  to  the 
growth  of  turnips  is  congenial  to  the  poppy,  which  loves  a  fine 
seedbed.  It  soon  dies  out  on  strong  land. 
Light  soil  having  once  become  infested  with  poppies  is  very 
troublesome  to  manage.  The  weeds  are  ever  present,  for 
amongst  autumn-sown  wheat  they  make  their  appearance  in 
February,  and  come  up  in  thousands  amongst  the  spring  corn. 
They  are  far  too  numerous  to  be  dealt  with  by  hoeing,  for  they 
abound  amongst  the  young  corn  which  is  in  Tows,  and  nothing 
but  hand-weeding  would  be  effectual. 
The  only  way  to  deal  with  poppies  is  to  attack  them  when 
they  are  very  small,  and  the  implement  to  use  is  a  set  of  light 
harrows.  As  soon  as  the  sun  begins  to  make  itself  felt  in 
February,  the  poppy  seeds  commence  to  germinate,  and  a 
watchful  eye  should  be  kept  upon  their  growth.  As  soon  as 
they  appear  to  be  putting  forth  their  second  leaves,  at  the 
earliest  opportunity  the  light  harrows  should  be  used.  They 
will  not  hurt  the  wheat,  although  at  the  time  they  may  appear 
to  do  so,  but  very  few  poppies  will  be  left  to  hamper  the  growing 
crop.* 
On  very  light  soils,  where  an  application  of  common  salt  is 
beneficial  to  wheat,  the  harrowing  may  be  made  much  more 
effectual  by  timing  it  to  follow  soon  after  the  sowing  of  the  salt. 
The  latter  causes  the  surface  of  the  soil  to  run  together  or  cake, 
and  a  very  slight  disturbance  of  this  caked  surface  suffices  to 
break  the  tap  roots  of  the  poppies,  and  put  an  end  to  their  capa¬ 
city  for  doing  further  injury.  As  regards  spring  corn  growing,  it 
is  not  advisable  to  sow  very  early  on  land  which  is  full  of  poppy 
seeds,  and  clover  seeds  should  never  be  sown  until  the  corn 
crop  is  well  above  ground.  If  the  clover  is  sown  then,  say 
about  the  middle  of  May,  and  harrowed  in  with  light  harrows, 
which  will  do  no  harm  to  the  barley  or  oats,  millions  of  minute 
poppy  plants  which  have  germinated  side  by  side  with  the  corn 
will  be  destro3’ed.  If  you  do  not  want  another  batch  to  follow 
after  this  harrowing  do  not  use  a  roller,  but  leave  the  land  as 
knotty  as  possible. 
The  other  noxious  annual  weed  is  the  charlock,  which  is  very 
bad  on  many  chalky  and  limestone  soils.  It  is  not  so  destruc¬ 
tive  as  the  poppy,  but  it  often  interferes  very  materially  with 
the  welfare  of  spring  sown  corn.  Harrowing  at  the  right  time 
does  a  little  good,  but  the  young  charlock  has  a  much  deeper 
root  than  the  poppy.  The  only  way  to  eradicate  it  is  to  pull 
it  out  by  hand,  but  a  fairly  effectual  substitute  for  that  system 
is  found  in  spraying  with  a  solution  of  copper  or  iron,  which  has 
a  burning  effect  on  tne  young  charlock  without  any  deleterious 
effect  on  the  jmung  corn. 
We  have  mentioned  five  weed  enemies :  couch,  thistle,  foahs- 
foot,  poppies,  charlock.  Couch  extermination  is  only  a  matter 
of  workl’  Thistles  may  be  kept  down  by  deep  and  thorough 
'  ploughing.  Foalsfoot  needs  summer  fallow  to  deal  with  it 
properlj".  Poppies  cannot  stand  harrowing.  Charlock  is  killed 
by  spraying.  We  have  not  mentioned  the  dock.  Well,  it  is  not 
a  common  weed,  and  no  farmer  should  have  a  common 
acquaintance  with  it. 
Work  on  the  Home  Farm. 
Having  got  all  our  spring  corn  up  and  growing  and  sown  our 
mangolds,  we  are  able  to  put  all  the  force  on  to  preparation  for 
swedes.  As  our  swede  land  is,  and  has  been  for  some  time, 
clean,  we  are  able  to  dispense  with  any  further  dressings,  and 
can  proceed  to  plough  and  roll  down,  thus  leaving  a  well  broken 
and  fresh  mould  to  work  on  at  drilling  time. 
Weather  conditions  have  lately  been  rather  dry,  sharp  winds 
having  been  prevalent,  and  young  barley  has  suffered  there¬ 
from.  There  has  been  no  appreciable  frost,  but  the  nights  have 
been  cold.  A  diy  May  usually’  means  prosperity  to  the  farmer, 
but  before  we  have  any  further  dry  weather  we  should  like  a 
twenty-four  hours’  rain.  We  may  be  charged  with  always 
wanting  weather  to  suit  us,  but  to  properly  work  and  sow  any 
medium  to  heavy  soil  after  a  frostless  winter  is  a  most  difl&cult 
matter  unless  rain  comes  when  it  is  most  urgently  needed. 
AVe  are  arguing  with  regard  to  turnip  sowing,  but  there  may 
be  .scores  and  hundreds  of  farmers  who  have  not  j'et  finished 
sowing  oats  and  barley,  and  who  are  waiting  for  rain  to  break 
down  the  land  before  the  drill.  Under  present  conditions,  we 
,  believe  in  making  good  use  of  the  plough.  Whether  the  land 
be  light  or  heavy  we  would  plough  and  roll  the  land  immediately 
afterwards,  leaving  it  firm  and  in  a  condition  to  conserve 
moisture. 
0  Land  which  is  not  too  clean,  and  which  is  to  be  sown  with 
late  turnips  or  rape,  may  be  thoroughly  fallowed  now.  Drag¬ 
ging,  rolling,  harrowing,  and  rolling  and  harrowing  again,  will 
bring  the  remnants  of  twitch  to  the  surface,  either  to  die  of 
drought,  or,  which  is  more  certain,  of  a  twitch  fire.  We  quite 
sympathise  with  agricultural  writers  who  prefer  to  make  the 
twitch  into  manure,  but  after  a  long  experience  of  the  enemy 
we  prefer  to  burn  him.  AVe  fear  that  much  spring-sown  corn 
promises  little  better  than  the  wheat,  and  we  advise  our  friends 
to  be  liberal  in  top-dressings.  The  seed-beds  were  cold,  and  a 
little  nitrate  of  soda,  say  lOOlb  per  acre,  should  be  a  good  invest¬ 
ment,  as  it  will  keep  the  plant  moving  until  it  is  established. 
