_Of_ WEEDS.
Plants, that come up in any Land, of a different Kind from the sown or
planted Crop, are Weeds.
That there are in Nature any such things as _inutiles Herbæ_, the
Botanists deny; and justly too, according to their Meaning.
But the Farmer, who expects to make Profit of his Land from what
he sows or plants in it, finds not only _Herbæ inutiles_, but also
_noxiæ_, unprofitable and hurtful Weeds; which come like _Muscæ_,
or uninvited Guests, that always hurt, and often spoil his Crop, by
devouring what he has, by his Labour in Dunging and Tilling, provided
for its Sustenance.
All Weeds, as such, are pernicious; but some much more than others;
some do more Injury, and are more easily destroy’d; some do less
Injury, and are harder to kill; others there are, which have both these
bad Qualities. The hardest to kill are such as will grow and propagate
by their Seed, and also by every Piece of their Roots, as Couch-grass,
Coltsfoot, Melilot, Fern, and such-like. Some are hurtful only by
robbing legitimate (or sown) Plants of their Nourishment, as all Weeds
do; others both lessen a legitimate Crop by robbing it, and also spoil
that Crop, which escapes their Rapine, when they infect it with their
nauseous Scent and Relish, as Melilot, wild Garlick, _&c._
Weeds starve the sown Plants, by robbing them of their Provision of
Food[61], not of their Room (as some Authors vainly imagine); which
will appear by the following Experiment.
[61] A Tree of any Sort will spoil Corn all round it, in a large
Circle; half an Acre of Turneps has been spoil’d by one: Hereby ’tis
plain, that Trees rob as Weeds; because ’tis not by their Shadow,
there being as much Damage done by them on the South-Side, where
their Shadow never comes, as on their North-Side: Nor can it be by
their dropping; for ’tis the same on the Side where a Tree has no
Boughs to drop over the Plants, when they are also at a very great
Distance from all Parts of the Tree, except its Roots.
Let three Beds of the same Soil, equal, and equally prepared, be sown
with the same Sort of Corn. Let the first of these Beds be kept clean
from Weeds: In the Second, let a Quantity of Weeds grow along with the
Corn; and in the Third, stick up a Quantity of dead Sticks, greater in
Bulk than the Weeds.
It will be found, that the Produce of the Corn in the First will not
exceed that of the Third Bed; but in the Second, where the Weeds are,
the Corn will be diminish’d in Proportion to the Quantity of Weeds
amongst it.
The Sticks, having done no Injury to the Corn, shew there was room
enough in the Bed for Company to lodge, would they forbear to eat; or
else (like Travellers in _Spain_) bring their Provision with them to
their Inn, or (which would be the same thing) if Weeds could find there
some Dish so disagreeable to the Palate of the Corn, and agreeable to
their own, that they might feed on it without robbing; and then they
would be as innocent as the Sticks, which take up the same Room with
the Weeds.
The Quantity of Nourishment Weeds rob the Corn of, is not in Proportion
only to their Number and Bulk, but to the Degrees of Heat in their
Constitution; as appears by the Instance of Charlock and Turneps,
mention’d in the Chapter _Of Change of Species_.
’Tis needless to go about to compute the Value of the Damage Weeds do,
since all experienc’d Husbandmen know it to be very great, and would
unanimously agree to extirpate their whole Race as intirely, as in
_England_ they have done the Wolves, tho’ much more innocent, and less
rapacious than Weeds[62].
[62] If we consider the Crops they utterly destroy, and those they
extremely diminish; and that very few Crops escape without receiving
Injury from them; it may be a Question, whether the Mischief Weeds
do to our Corn, is not as great as the Value of the Rent of all the
Arable Lands in _England_.
But alas! they find it impossible to be done, or even to be hoped for,
by the common Husbandry; and the Reasons I take to be these.
The Seeds of most Sorts of Weeds are so hardy, as to lie sound and
uncorrupt for many Years[63], or perhaps Ages in the Earth; and are not
kill’d until they begin to grow or sprout, which very few of them do,
unless the Land be plow’d; and then enough of them will ripen amongst
the sown Crop, to propagate and continue their Species, by shedding
their Off-spring in the Ground (for ’tis observ’d they are generally
ripe before the Corn); and the Seeds of these do the same in the next
sown Crop; and thus perpetuate their savage, wicked[64] Brood, from
Generation to Generation.
[63] The Seeds of _Lethean Poppy_ (call’d _Red-weed_) have lain
dormant 24 Years (the Land being, during that time, in _St. Foin_)
and then at first Plowing they came up very thick; this I have seen,
and so will many other Sorts of Weeds, when the Ground has lain
untill’d for an Age.
[64] The _French_ call them, _les Herbes Sauvages, & les mechantes
Herbes_.
Besides, their Seeds never all come up in one Year, unless the Land be
very often plow’d; for they must have their exact Depth, and Degrees of
Moisture and Heat, to make them grow; and such as have not these, will
lie in the Ground, and retain their vegetative Virtue for Ages; and the
common usual Plowings, not being sufficient to make them all, or the
greatest Part, grow, almost every Crop that ripens increases the Stock
of Seed, until it make a considerable Part of the Staple of such Land
as is sown without good Tillage and Fallowing.
The best Defence against these Enemies, which the Farmer has hitherto
found, is to endeavour their Destruction by a good Summer-fallow:
This indeed, if the Weather be propitious, does make Havock of them;
but still some will escape one Year’s Prosecution. Either by being
sometimes situate so high, that the Sun’s Heat dries them, or sometimes
lying so deep, that it cannot reach them; either way their Germination,
which would have proved their Death, is prevented.
Another Faculty secures abundance of them, and that is, their being
able to endure the Heat and Moisture of one Year without growing;
as[65] wild Oats, and innumerable other Sorts of Weeds, will do; for
gather these when ripe, sow them in the richest Bed, water them, and do
all that is possible to make them grow the First Year, it will be vain
Labour; they will resist all Enticements till the Second; that is, if
you gather them in Autumn, you cannot force them to grow until the next
Spring come Twelve-month; and many of them will remain dormant even to
the next Year alter that, and some of them longer.
[65] I have not try’d wild Oats by sowing them in a Bed myself,
but have been so informed by others; and my own Experience hath
frequently shewn me, that they will come up, after lying many Years
in the Ground; and that very few Sorts of Weeds will come all up the
first Year, as Corn doth: If they did, the Tillage of one Year’s
Summer-fallow might extirpate them.
By this Means, One Year’s Summer-Fallow can have no Effect upon them,
but to prepare the Soil for their more vigorous Growth and plentiful
Increase the next Year after; and very rarely will the Farmer fallow
his Land Two Years successively; and often the Dung, which is made
of the Straw of sown Corn, being full of the Seeds of Weeds, when
spread on the Fallows, incumbers the Soil with another Stock of Weeds,
as ample as that the Fallowing has destroy’d; and tho’ perhaps many
of these may not grow the next Year, they will be sure to come up
afterwards.
The other old Remedy is what often proves worse than the Disease; that
is, what they call Weeding among sown Corn; for if by the Hook or Hand
they cut some Sorts (as Thistles) while they are young, they will
sprout up again, like _Hydras_, with more Heads than before; and if
they are cut when full-grown, after they have done almost their utmost
in robbing the Crop, ’tis like shutting the Stable-Door after the Steed
is stolen.
Hand-weeders often do more Harm to the Corn with their Feet, than they
do Good by cutting or pulling out the Weeds with their Hands; and yet
I have known this Operation sometimes cost the Farmer Twelve Shillings
an Acre; besides the Damage done by treading down his Wheat; and,
after all, a sufficient Quantity of them have escaped, to make a too
plentiful Increase in the next Crop of Corn.
The new Hoeing-Husbandry in Time will probably make such an utter
Riddance[66] of all Sorts of Weeds[67], except such as come in the
Air, that[68] as long as this Management is properly continued, there
is no Danger to be apprehended from them; which is enough to confute
the old Error of equivocal Generation, had it not been already
sufficiently exploded, ever since that Demonstration of _Malpighius’s_
Experiment. For if Weeds were brought forth without their proper Seeds,
the Hoeing could not hinder their Production, where the Soil was
inclined naturally to produce them. The Belief of that blind Doctrine
might probably be one of the Causes that made the Antients despair of
finding so great Success in Hoeing, as now appears; or else, if they
had had true Principles, they might perhaps have invented and improved
that Husbandry, and the Instruments necessary to put it in Practice.
[66] A very pernicious, large, perennial Weed, like _Burrage_, with a
blue Flower, infested a Piece of Land, for Time out of Mind: Hoeing
has destroyed it utterly; not one of the Species has been seen in the
Field these Seven Years, tho’ constantly till’d and ho’d.
[67] I have now a Piece of Wheat drill’d early the last Autumn upon
an Hill, fallowed and well pulveriz’d: Part of it was drill’d with
Wheat in double Rows upon the Level Nine Years ago, Horse-ho’d, and
the Partitions thoroughly Hand-ho’d to cleanse out the Poppies, of
which the Land was very full; the other Part of this Piece was never
drilled till this Year: The whole Piece hath not been before this
Winter Horse-ho’d. Now the Partitions of the Part that was never any
Way Ho’d, are so stock’d with Poppies matted together, that unless
they are taken out early in the Spring, they will totally devour the
Rows of Wheat; but in the other Part that was ho’d so long since,
there are now very few Poppies to be seen. Both these Parts have had
several sown Crops of Barley together since, and have lain with _St.
Foin_ these last Five or Six Years.
[68] And except also such Weeds, whose Seed is carried by Birds,
which is the most common Manner of transporting the Seeds of
Vegetables from Field to Field, against the Content of the Owner: For
Birds, whether great or small, do not care to eat their Prey where
they take it, but generally chuse some open Place for that Purpose.
’Tis, I am persuaded, by this Means chiefly, that a Vineyard or
Field, made ever so clean from Grass, will, in lying untilled a few
Years, be replenished with a Turf of that neighbouring Species of
Grass, which best suits the Heat and Moisture of the Soil: Yet there
are some Species of Seeds that Birds (at least such as frequent this
Place) do not affect; else the Burrage-weed (mentioned in _p._ 77.)
would have appeared again in my Field in some of the many Years since
the Hoeing has extirpated it there; for it grows plentifully in the
unplowed Way adjoining thereto.
The Seeds of some Weeds may be suspected to come in the Air; as the
Seed of the Grass that grew in the _Cheapside_, in the Time of the
Plague; but it might come from Seeds in the Dirt, brought thither
by the Feet of People and Cattle, and by the Wheels of Coaches,
Carts carrying Hay: Or otherwise continual Treading might keep it
from Growing; and when the Treading ceased, ’tis no Wonder the Seeds
should furnish the Streets with Grass.
And I have observ’d on the Floors, two Stories high, of a lone,
ruinous, uninhabited House, being long uncover’d, a sort of Herb
growing very thick; I think it was _Pimpernel_, and believe that its
Seeds did not come thither in the Air; but in the Sand which was
mix’d with the Mortar that had fallen from the Cielings; and ’tis
like there were few Seeds at first: Yet, these, ripening for several
Years, shed their Seeds annually, until the Floors became all over
very thick planted: Besides, Hay-seeds and Pimpernel are too heavy to
be carry’d far by the Air.