Science and Practice in Farm Cultivation Part 18

+-------------------+--------+-----+--------+----------+ Weeds Pints Weeds Weeds to to to an to an a Square a Pint. Acre Acre. Yard. +-------------------+--------+-----+--------+----------+ Broad Clover 7,840 13 = 100,920 21 Ditto 8,400 13 = 109,200 22 Cow-gra.s.s Clover 12,000 13 = 156,000 32 Ditto 6,400 13 = 83,200 17 White Dutch Clover 26,560 12 = 318,720 66 Ditto 70,400 12 = 844,800 174 +-------------------+-----------------------+----------+

3. TABLE OF WEEDS IN A SQUARE YARD OF SEEDS.

+---+---------------------+-----------------------------+------------+ No. Botanical Name. Trivial Name. Number of Weed-plants. +---+---------------------+-----------------------------+------------+ 1 Plantago lanceolata Narrow-leaved Plantain 7 2 Ranunculus repens Creeping Crowfoot 8 3 Centaurea scabiosa Hard Head 2 4 Leontodon taraxac.u.m Dandelion 2 5 Apargia autumnalis Autumnal Hawkbit 1 6 Glechoma hederacea Ground Ivy 6 7 Prunella vulgaris Self Heal 4 8 Convolvulus arvensis Corn Bindweed 1 9 aethusa cynapium Fool's Parsley 1 10 Cerastium arvense Mouse-ear 2 11 Sherardia arvensis Field Madder 6 12 Tritic.u.m repens Common Couch 2 13 Agrostis stolonifera Creeping Bent 4 -- Total of weeds in a square yard besides annual gra.s.ses. 46 +-------------------------------------------------------+------------+

These three tables show us not only the fact that the farmer sows weeds with his crop, but, as will be seen from table 2, quite enough of these in some cases to stock the land,-how effectually, indeed, may be seen from table 3, where in arable land we find no less than forty-six plants other than the crop, and mostly of those species whose seeds will be traced in dirty samples. To further show that clovers and their mixtures with gra.s.ses called "seeds" have their own peculiar weeds, we subjoin one other table of the species of weeds observed in three kinds of seed crops as under:-

1. Old clover and common rye gra.s.s (second year).

2. "Old seeds,"-clover, trefoil, common and Italian rye gra.s.ses (second year).

3. New seeds, clover and rye gra.s.s (first year).

No. 1 examined on August 31; 2 and 3 on the 24th September, 1859.

4. TABLE OF WEED-PLANTS IN SEEDS.

The dashes (-) in three columns intimate the occurrence of the plants signified in the fields 1, 2, and 3 respectively.

---+--------------------------+------------------------+----+----+---- No. Botanical Name. Trivial Name. Old. Old. New.

1. 2. 3.

---+--------------------------+------------------------+----+----+---- 1 Knautia arvensis Corn Scabious -- .. ..

2 Centaurea Jacobea Hard Head -- -- -- 3 nigra Black Head -- .. ..

4 Achillea millefolium Milfoil -- .. ..

5 Chrysanthemum leucanthemum Ox-eye -- .. ..

6 Tussilago farfara Coltsfoot -- .. ..

7 Gnaphalium Germanic.u.m Cudweed -- -- -- 8 Anthemis arvensis Corn Chamomile -- .. ..

9 Bellis perennis Daisy .. -- ..

10 Senecio vulgaris Groundsel -- -- -- 11 Leontodon taraxac.u.m Dandelion -- -- -- 12 Apargia hispida Rough Hawkbit -- .. ..

13 autumnalis Autumnal ditto -- .. ..

14 Sonchus arvensis Corn Sowthistle -- -- -- 15 Carduus arvensis Corn Thistle -- -- -- 16 lanceolatus Lancet-leaved Thistle .. -- ..

17 nutans Nodding or Musk Thistle -- -- -- 18 acanthoides Welted Thistle .. .. -- 19 Arctium lappa Burdock -- -- ..

20 Sinapis arvensis Charlock .. -- -- 21 Sisymbrium officinale Treacle Mustard .. .. -- 22 Rumex obtusifolius Round-leaved Dock -- -- ..

23 crispus Curled-leaf Dock -- -- -- 24 Veronica serpyllifolia Thyme-leaved Speedwell -- -- ..

25 agrestis Field Speedwell .. -- -- 26 Buxbaumii Buxbaum's ditto .. -- -- 27 Euphorbia exigua Petty Spurge -- -- -- 28 Geum urbanum Common Avens -- .. ..

29 Prunella vulgaris Self Heal -- -- -- 30 Acinos vulgaris b.a.s.t.a.r.d Thyme -- -- ..

31 Polygonum aviculare Knot Gra.s.s -- -- -- 32 convolvulus Climbing Buckwheat .. .. -- 33 Plantago media Broad-leaved Plantain -- -- -- 34 lanceolata Lancet-leaved ditto -- -- -- 35 Ranunculus repens Creeping Crowfoot -- -- -- 36 Geranium molle Soft Cranesbill -- -- -- 37 Columbinum Long-stalked ditto .. -- ..

38 Galeopsis Ladanum Red Hemp Nettle .. .. -- 39 Glechoma hederacea Ground Ivy -- -- ..

40 Stachys sylvatica Hedge Stachys -- .. ..

41 Stellaria media Chickweed .. -- -- 42 Cerastium arvense Mouse-ear -- -- -- 43 Arenaria serpyllifolia Thyme-leaved Sandwort -- -- -- 44 Lychnis dioica White Campion .. .. -- 45 Convolvulus arvensis Small Bindweed -- -- -- 46 Urtica dioica Nettle -- .. ..

47 Petroselinum segetum Corn Parsley -- -- ..

48 Torilis anthriscus Hedge Parsley .. .. -- 49 nodosa Knotted Parsley -- -- ..

50 Anagallis arvensis Pimpernel -- -- -- 51 Capsella Bursa-pastoris Shepherd's Purse -- -- -- 52 Sherardia arvensis Field Madder -- -- -- 53 Chenopodium polyspermum Goosefoot -- .. -- 54 Potentilla anserina Silver Weed -- .. ..

55 Bartsia odont.i.tes Red Bartsia .. -- -- 56 Linaria spuria Round-leaved Toad Flax .. .. -- 57 elatine Fluellen ditto .. .. -- 58 Myosotis arvensis Corn Forget-me-not .. .. -- 59 Lamium amplexicaule Henbit .. .. -- 60 Poa annua Annual Meadow-gra.s.s .. .. -- 61 Agrostis stolonifera Creeping Bent -- -- ..

62 Bromus mollis Lop or Soft Brome-gra.s.s -- .. ..

63 var. racemosus Lop or Smooth Brome- gra.s.s .. -- ..

64 Tritic.u.m repens Couch -- -- ..

+----+----+---- 44 39 38 ---+--------------------------+------------------------+----+----+----

These three fields are situate on the Agricultural College Farm, the substrata of which are forest marble and great oolite, and 2 and 3 were absolutely adjoining each other. How different, then, are the species of wild plants in fields so close together, when out of a list of sixty-four species only twenty-four, or a little more than one-third, are common to all three of the fields examined; and yet we can safely affirm that the aboriginal flora of any three fields of the district would scarcely offer half a dozen species in the one field that could not be found in all; and, indeed, in a field that had lain fallow for several years not half of the present list would be found.

That these, then, have to a great extent been sown with the seed is quite certain; but what tends further to strengthen the argument is, that the _Veronica Buxbaumii_ (Buxbaum's Speedwell) and the _Petroselinum segetum_ (Corn Parsley) are not native to the farm; and, indeed, it is doubtful whether very many of our agrarian weeds are true natives, as on examination many weeds will only be found in special crops, and these occur in the same crops all over the world wherever those crops can be cultivated. Our own country, then, has, doubtless, imported a large portion of her weed flora from abroad, just as we have traced in the United States, European (not American) plants, tracking the settlers from England, Ireland, and Scotland. It is thus that the European daisy (_Bellis perennis_) has got the name of the "White Man's Foot."

Seeing, then, that the clover seeds are so liable to be dirty, it becomes an important inquiry as to whether it is possible to get pure seed; and in reply to this query we should answer, from a long experience, that though one seldom sees pure clover seed, yet it sometimes falls in our way, or at least so pure that its weeds are reduced to a minimum. Such samples may be expected to be high-priced; but still, how much cheaper than a dirty article!-for, independently of having only the seed of the crop you wish to cultivate, you are saved the annoyance which must arise when a weed has taken root, in that then the clover cannot grow, and you ultimately see the ground occupied by a spreading noxious plant, or, this dying out, there will be a vacant spot,-in either case resulting in a loss of nutriment.

But, besides the more natural method of selling dirty seed from weedy patches, seedsmen are too apt to mix the seed of plantain (_Plantago lanceolata_) with that of clover; for, as the colours of the seeds are not unlike, and some people speak favourably of plantain as a sheep-feed, it is unblus.h.i.+ngly mixed and sold with clover seed, though the plantain at most is only worth about half the price.

Where it occurs naturally amongst clovers, it may be separated to make a good sample, but only to be ultimately mixed again and sold to greenhorns with a cheap sample. We have had before us samples of clover containing plantain as under:-

5. TABLE OF PLANTAIN SEEDS IN CLOVER.

+--------------------+-----------+------------+ Plantain Seeds. +--------------------+-----------+------------+ White Dutch Clover 1,024,000 } Red Clover 1,085,440 } In an Ditto 1,568,000 } Imperial Ditto 2,508,160 } Bushel. +--------------------+-----------+------------+

In the instance where we had estimated as many as 1,568,000 plantain seeds to a bushel of clover seed, the seedsman admitted that he had put it with the clover at the rate of one pound of plantain to eleven pounds of clover, under the impression that it was a desirable pasture plant.

Now this we know is often done; but is it not always charged for as clover in cases where it is used for adulteration?

This matter, then, of dirty seed is clearly one of importance: it, however, only wants the farmer to become acquainted with the true form of clover seed to enable him to detect any admixture in this; and then, if he has this knowledge, so requisite for his well-doing, and steadily abstains from purchasing the nasty, however cheap, he will soon find that his seedsman will supply him with a genuine article, which, all things considered, will be even cheaper than the opposite.

CHAPTER XXIII.

ON THE PARASITES OF CLOVER.

Of the truly parasitic plants affecting the clover crop, we have two genera-namely, _Cuscuta_ or Dodder, and _Orobanche_ or Broomrape. Both of these, some few years since, were comparatively rare as farm pests; but as they are probably more abundant on Continental than on our home farms, they are greatly increasing from the constant influx of foreign seeds.

CUSCUTA-_Dodder_.

Of the genus _Cuscuta_ we have two species of agricultural importance,-_Cuscuta epilinum_, the Flax Dodder, and _C. trifolii_, the Clover Dodder. In both, the plant itself consists of a ma.s.s of pink and yellowish tendrils, upon which are placed here and there compact bunches of flowers varying alike in colour. The whole plant, in both species, being entirely parasitic-that is, it lives wholly on the juices of its foster-parent,-it has no leaves of its own; still, however, the Dodder plant is in the first instance produced from seed, each flower being succeeded by a capsule containing two small wrinkled seeds, which, not being larger or lighter in the _C. epilinum_ than a linseed, or in the still smaller seed of the clover, in the case of the _C. trifolii_, the seed of flax or clover crops affected with dodder will never be entirely free from it: as an evidence of its large increase, we remember once seeing a crop of flax grown from Riga seed diminished about one-twentieth by the dodder; but on the seed so produced being sown in another field of the same farm, the crop of flax was well-nigh destroyed.

Our friend Professor Voelcker had some seed of the flax dodder sent to him for a.n.a.lysis, the reason being that, as his correspondent had separated a great number of bushels of this weed pest from a single crop of flax, he was desirous of ascertaining whether it possessed any feeding properties or the reverse; and on this head it is satisfactory to learn that it is considered useless, though innocuous.

It was part of this sample with which we experimented on the mode of growth of dodder, which, although being the dodder of the flax or linseed plant, yet its natural history will doubtless be that of the clover dodder;[8] we shall, therefore, describe the progress of our experiments, and their results.

[8] We are desirous of inst.i.tuting special experiments on the growth of clover dodder, but have failed to procure ripe seed, the reason being that the seed does not ripen after the clover has been cut down for its first crop.

Having prepared some finely-sifted soil in a garden saucer, we sowed a small quant.i.ty of flax seed with which had been purposely mixed a few of the seeds of flax dodder; this, on being placed in a hot-house, showed the progress indicated in the diagram.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A. Seed-covering beneath which _radicle_ or young root is pus.h.i.+ng.

B. Leafless stem or tendril growing upwards, bearing seed-covering on its apex.

C. Young thread-like plant freed from seed-covering, on the look-out for a foster-parent.

D. Not finding a foster-parent, droops and dies.]