that they usually grow faster than the wheat. If weeding be deferred till the seed is matured, it gets scattered in the process, and as there is everything to assists its germination, we eradicate one plant and substitute thousands. The careful farmer must be ever watchful not to neglect a single root; and as the habits of weeds are so various, and as each has its season, so also the times and methods of their destruction must be varied accordingly. It is still, however, too much the custom to perform all operations according to the maxims of a traditional ignorance, which are often the more enduring from being embodied in jingling verse. Thus we have some rustic lines upon the nettle, which, crude as they are, have yet more rhyme than reason:— But if cut in August, Die they must.' Now it is quite true that the earlier cuttings have the effect described in this poetical receipt. The nettles reappear, though in a weak and attenuated form. After the August cutting it is equally true that they are seen no more; but it is solely because the heads would shortly have died of themselves. Though they make no fresh shoots during the brief remainder of the season, the roots retain their vitality, and the nettles will spring up as strong as ever the next year. To destroy them they must be cut not merely in August, but during all the months mentioned. Then their leaves are never permitted to perfect themselves, and the plant quickly perishes. With many weeds the branches may appear in vigorous growth, and be still sending out new flowers at their ends, whilst the earlier flowers have ripened their seeds. This will appear from a table of six common weeds of this kind which were gathered in April 1856, in a field in the county of Gloucester, which had been partly horse-hoed : Here the very process of hoeing would be apt to scatter these 6,025 seeds under the best possible circumstances to ensure their growth. Yet the farmer would commonly think such a hoeing abundantly early, and would certainly not dream that the 6,025 seeds were the offspring of six plants alone. If the hoeing was deferred, or was not done at all, these six plants might produce the enormous sum of 21,950 seeds, which in the next season would be sufficient to take complete possession of the soil. In weeding, as in other things, delays are dangerous. This is not the only way in which the agriculturist is a conservator instead of an exterminator of weeds. Professor Buckman in his Prize Essay mentions three other methods by which the farmer becomes his own weed-grower, and that very often on an enlarged scale :-1st, from the neglect of waysides and waste places; 2nd, from permitting weeds to be thrown on the manure-heap; and 3rd, from sowing weed-seeds with the seeds for the crop. That waysides and waste places are so many nurseries of weeds, all may observe who will only take the trouble to examine the parts of a farm which lie nearest to them. Thus a coltsfoot bank by the roadside will soon cause this pest to show itself in the neighbouring fields. Dandelions and thistles spread principally in the direction of the prevailing wind, and as they have downy seeds they take a wider range than those of other kinds; but it is surprising the distances that even ordinary seeds may be carried. The prejudicial effects of a neglected road are now so well recognised by all good farmers that they willingly undergo the expense of keeping it clean; and, as Professor Buckman suggests, it would be a boon to agriculture if road-surveyors were compelled to perform the same duty in the roads under their charge. The worst of the matter is, that one careless cultivator who neglects banks, ditches, and wastecorners, keeps up a supply of seeds which are disseminated over the adjoining lands. The occupiers are put to a serious and continuous expense in consequence. If it was only from justice to good tenants, landlords should exclude every weed-grower from a district. He is not only a bad farmer, but a bad neighbour also. Professor Buckman says that a neglected manure-heap often produces enough weedseeds to stock a farm. In an article in Morton's 'Cyclopedia of Agriculture' we have these just observations on the subject: 'It is too much the custom to conceive that weeds, even in seed, may safely be added to swell the manure-heap, and hence they are frequently carried thereto in order that they may rot. Now, although they really do decay in this situation to a greater or less extent, yet it should be borne in mind that, even under the most favourable circumstances, much must escape decomposition; and though the herbage may decay, yet in most instances the seed is so curiously and beautifully contrived, with its firm envelopes, as to enable it to resist accidents which destroy all other parts of the plant. Who has not noticed on old dungheaps an enormous amount of rank vegetation? Here the seeds have vegetated, because they were near the surface, and were consequently exposed to the influence of the atmosphere; we turn it over and expose a fresh surface, and this also becomes covered with weeds; we spread it on the land and the same kind is propagated. Indeed all the crops to which we put manures are the foulest, and the inference, therefore, is plain that the manureheap is a fertile source of weed propagation The seeds got mixed with litter and refuse matter of all kinds, but more especially with farmyardsweepings. The refuse of winnowing, for example, is given to the fowls, under the mistaken idea that they will digest all the seeds, and destroy them; those that they do not eat or digest are carried off to the dung-heap. It is, therefore, no wonder that weeding is ever doing, and yet has ever to be done. It cannot be too often In the summer of 1858 we observed in a blank spot, twelve yards long and three wide, where the turf had been removed for a former manure-heap, thirty species of the commoner weeds, not one of which was to be found in the surrounding turf. Amongst them were goosefoot, knotgrasses, dock, sow-thistles, poppies, thistles, and many of the smaller weeds, each of which would doubtless have been found spread over the field to which the manure was applied. We once saw a field of turnips which were perfectly white with the flowers of the stinking-chamomile, though not a specimen of it was to be seen in the neighbouring lands. The flowers were so regularly disposed that there could be no doubt but that the intruder had been brought in with the manure, and spread along with it over the ground. When it is remembered that a single plant may produce 40,650 seeds, we can have no dif ficulty in conceiving bow an entire field may be thickly sown from a single manureheap. The third source of weeds is that they are sown with the seed for the crop. It has been demonstrated that almost every common article of sale is sophisticated by dishonest dealers. It was not, therefore, to be supposed that agricultural seeds would escape. The unsuspicious farmer long went on buying them with scarce a question as to their purity, notwithstanding that weeds were constantly seen to spring up in fields where they had been previously unknown. He is somewhat warier now, but both rogues and dupes are likely to exist as long as weeds themselves. All that is required for the detection of the fraud is a pair of sharp eyes, and the occasional aid of a lens, conjoined with some little patience to separate the trash which is often mixed with the seeds. A Leeds buyer of cloth is never without his pocketmicroscope for the examination of the wares in which he deals; and though an old-fashioned farmer would stare at the notion of looking at a sample of seeds with what he calls a multiplying-glass,' he may become reconciled to the test when he reads in such lists as that which follows what noxious stuff he buys in the place of grass and clover, and observes how the original imposition inflicts upon him in its consequences an ever-multiplying injury:— TABLE OF WEED-SEEDS TO THE BUSHEL OF THE FOLLOWING CROP-SEEDS. is not very bright;' but the answer, 'I don't ask a heavy price,' silences criticism; and for the sake of saving a few pence per bushel in the first outlay, the buyer becomes a perpetual cultivator of weeds. Having paid for his enemies, and carefully sown them, he imagines on their coming up that they are natural to the soil. It must be admitted that such small plants as clovers are very difficult to keep free from weeds, and the process entails considerable expense. But instead of the The more deliberate adulterations are care being proportioned to the need for it, endless. We have found as many as it more frequently happens that a particu- 1,920,000 seeds of the heavy and easilylarly dirty patch of mixed clovers and grown narrow-leaved plantain in a bushel grasses will be put up for seed. Though of red-clover; and 23,040 seeds of the so mongrel a growth would make bad hay, false-barnet (Poterium sanguisorba) in a it may yield a heavier weight of seed than single bushel of saintfoin. The false-burwhen pure. It is true that when offered net grows so much faster than the saintfor sale, the remark may be made that 'it | foin that it completely smothers it when in linseed was threshed at the farm buildings, and in various ways its weeds got to a manure-heap, which was traced to a field of beans. The black mustard occupied a large strip in the middle, the weed. This is now the general charlock of the boundary line circumscribing the growth of the farm, it having nearly expelled the common Sinapis arvensis-a circumstance which we think partly accounted for by the greater fecundity of the former, for the Sinapis arvensis has only 4000 seeds to a plant, and the Sinapis nigra has 8000. The manner in which weeds are increase of exotic species from the use of fcspread over some farms may be observed in the reign seeds, a circumstance which accounts for the additions to our English flora within the last few years. However, these, as being wholly foreigners, seldom make rapid progress." Not content with home-grown adulterations, a still further supply is imported from abroad. The following extract from the letter of a French dealer in London, addressed to the well-known seed establishment of the Messrs. Sutton, of Reading, will show how systematically this fraudulent trade is carried on :— 'I have sold this day some India rape-seed for mixing with turnip-seed, and enclose a sample. If you will have some at 568. per quarter, in the docks, you can have it, if unsold, to your answer. I have some East India radish-seed at 98. per bushel. If you want some for mixing, I shall be very happy to serve you.' such enormous proportions. But perhaps | aggravated degree. Afterwards some of the the most gigantic fraud committed upon the farmer is one in which he is himself the agent. Every one knows the common charlock, kerlock, or kedlock of our arable fields. It is a species of mustard-the Sinapis arvensis of the botanist-and is often so abundant as to render the fields a complete blaze of yellow. Its seeds are just the size of those of the turnip; for both belong to closely allied species, and it is difficult to distinguish one from the other. The charlock-seeds are separated from the corn in the process of winnowing; and as there is a ready market for this refuse, at from 2s. 6d. to 38. the bushel, the farmer is only too glad to sell it. A portion of it is crushed and mixed with rape or linseed. The hot and stimulating mustard is a poison to the bullocks which are fed upon the mixture. It produces inflammation of the bowels, and many a fine head of cattle has been killed from its use. Several samples of both linseed and rape-cake, which had been attended by these fatal results, were subjected to the examination of Professor Voelcker of the Royal Agricultural Society, and in all of them the mustard was detected by its pungency. The transaction in this form is clearly not to the advantage of the farmer. But the greater part of this charlock is used for the adulteration of turnip-seed. It is previously subjected to a high temperature, which destroys its vitality, and prevents the suspicion which might arise if it came up in the rows when drilled. Still detection is easy; for if turnip-seed be bruised and mixed in water, the charlock will soon betray itself by emitting the pungent odour of mustard. In both instances the farmer has his weed returned upon his hands, in the one case at the expense of his fattening bullock, and in the other he buys back what he sold for a trifle at the rate of from 9d. to 18. per lb. As it does not germinate when it is sown, an extravagant expenditure of seed becomes permanently Trivial as the subject will appear to some, necessary, to allow for the chance of much it is not only a question of private profit of it never coming up at all. Where the but of national importance. If all the seeds are not killed the case is worse. An weeds which occupy the place of plants instance of this is given in the 'Agricultu- that serve for the sustenance of man were ral Gazette' for Nov. 7, 1857, and many in a single parish collected together, we could add others from their own experi- should be astonished to perceive how great was the loss of food to the community at large. What the weed eats is so much taken from human subsistence, and the aggregate amount which is thus consumed is enormous. With the general improvement of agriculture farmers have become far more alive to the importance of keeping their land clean and preventing as ence: 'Some few years since we commenced the growth of flax. Our first crop introduced to the field a large growth of Sinapis nigra, or black mustard, a plant to which the field was before a stranger. The seed of this flax was afterwards sown in another part of the farm, thus introducing the black mustard in a new place in an India rape-seed at the price of turnip-seed leaves a tolerable margin for profit; and East India radish-seed to be re-sold at the garden price of 2d. the ounce is certainly a temptation to the dishonest dealer. The remedy is with the farmer. He should neither sell weed-seed nor buy it. There is little doubt that seeds can be got absolutely free from weeds if he will pay such a price as will remunerate the seed grower, and it is with seed adulterations as with all other kinds of sophistications, that the balance is ever against the purchaser. much as possible the growth of weeds, instead of leaving them to overshadow the proper crop till they threaten to drive it from the field. But much still remains to be done before docks and thistles will be replaced by a proportionate quantity of bread and beef and beer, to the mutual advantage of the individual farmer and the population who enjoy abundance, or pine in scarcity, according to the increase which the earth is made to yield. ART. VIII.-The Orchard House. By Thomas Rivers, of the Nurseries, Sawbridgeworth, Herts. Fifth Edition. London, 1858. 6 'ORCHARD-HOUSES,' says Mr. Rivers, are now familiar things: hundreds are rising up all over the face of the country: no garden structures have ever so rapidly advanced in popularity.' Mr. Rivers, who originated this excellent method of cultivating fruit-trees, naturally hears much of the extension of his plan, which leads him to imagine that it is more widely diffused than is really the case. By far the majority of educated people do not even know of the existence of the system, and we believe we shall do a service in calling their attention to it. Hitherto houses for fruit have been a luxury confined to the rich; and are only found in descriptions of aristocratic residences. Their enjoyment predicated a first-rate gardener, and plenty of coals for the flues. The next step is the well-stocked wall,' and from thence we sink down into the ordinary garden fenced with paling or hedges. The out-of-door wall is very uncertain, and it is always doubtful, spite of nets, bunting, and other protectors, whether the spring frosts will not ruin the crop. Moreover, as the fruit only grows on the wood of the preceding year, much skill and some foresight are requisite to keep the walls covered with new shoots, so that they may be preserved for bearing blossoms in the following spring. Hence the mystery of pruning, a subject which is usually treated empirically, and is understood by few. Even at Montreuil, near Paris, where there are miles of low peach-walls, we have been told that almost every separate cultivator has his own scheme of pruning. On all these points orchard-houses possess a decided advantage. They are cheaper than forcing houses, are more certain in their produce than wall-trained fruit-trees, and owing to the greater simplicity of the pruning, an amateur who possesses Mr. Rivers's guide may boldly undertake the management himself, or may depute it to any gardener of ordinary intelligence. To be sure, during the great spring frost of this year the orchard-houses did not always save the apricots, peaches, and pears from destruction, though where the precaution was adopted of throwing a mat over the glass, or of burning a pan of charcoal, or candles, in the house, the fruit was mostly saved. On the 1st of April the thermometer at Chiswick was 13 degrees above the freezing point, on the 18th it had dropped to 10 degrees below. Such a combination of early hot weather, which brought everything unseasonably forward, with subsequent severe frost, is not likely to occur in half a century. Sir Robert Peel had the sagacity to perceive the importance of repealing the duty on glass. Without this happy and timely change, we should have had no Crystal Palaces, no grand railway station resembling that at Paddington, and, what is more to our present purpose, we should have had no cheap orchard-houses. Not only has the cost of the manufacture greatly diminished, so that what formerly cost shillings may be got for pence, but the quality is vastly improved. The gardener must always look back with interest to a measure which has been attended with such important results to his art. Mr. Ellis, in his Report on the Exhibition of 1851, states that during half a century prior to the removal of the duty, notwithstanding the augmentation of the population, there was actually a decrease in the quantity of glass manufactured. It has increased so much since, that our exports in glass, which in 1847 were under 300,000l., amounted in 1857 to 659,000l. So great at the same time has been the advance in quality for common consumption, that rolled-plate is now largely used for hot-houses and conservatories. this purpose, says M. Bontemps, in his Report on the Paris Exhibition of 1855, it possesses the advantage of not producing on the plants the effects of a burningglass, which is sometimes the case with certain portions of sheet-glass. For The orchard-house is simply a glassroofed shed.' It should have boarded sides about four or five feet high, and upon these sides rests a rigid glazed roof. It is essential that the house should be kept low, for the nearer the glass,' says Mr. Rivers, the finer the fruit. A path runs |
