ON THE WEEDS OF PASTURE.
“Weeds in pasture!” said an old farmer friend; “I thought hay and grass
was all weeds.” This, which is by no means an uncommon notion,
sufficiently explains the want of care in the cultivation of the best
kinds of meadow produce, which can only be effected by the destruction
of what is useless or mischievous.
Now, if we proceed upon the assumption that the best kinds of meadow are
remarkable for the possession of little else than the best kinds of the
true grasses, we shall see that pasturage should, in the main, be
composed of good grass-growth, with only some few other plants which may
be capable of augmenting quantity, by their nutritive matter, giving
flavour, or improving quality.
It follows, then, that all plants having none of these requisites must
be, to all intents and purposes, only _mischievous weeds_; as thus a
large useless plant in a meadow, as in an arable field, must not only
occupy the space that would be better taken up by good plants, but it
appropriates a large quantity of food to the prejudice of the better
crop.
Viewed in this light, then, what a mass of weeds some of our pastures
will be found to contain! In fact, what with useless plants, other than
grasses, and coarse, sour, or useless grasses themselves, we meet with
so-called meadows to which the terms of “barren moor” or waste land
would be especially applicable.
The following table is offered as an attempt at the classification of
the weeds of pasture, the different divisions of which we shall
presently describe in the order of their arrangement.
TABLE OF PASTURE WEEDS.
1. _Plants which take up space but yield no Produce._
----------------------+-----------------------+---------------------
Trivial Name. | Botanical Name. | Remarks.
----------------------+-----------------------+---------------------
| {| The leaves of these
Broad-leaved Plantain.| Plantago media {| plants grow too close
Dent-de-lion | Leontodon taraxacum {| to the ground to be
Daisy | Bellis perennis {| eaten off by cattle
| {| or to cut for hay.
| { | These plants take up
| { | much room in growing,
Cowslip | Primula veris { | they are not eaten by
Primrose | „ vulgaris { | cattle, and, as they
Green-winged Orchis | Orchis Morio { | die before haymaking,
Early Purple Orchis | „ mascula { | yield little or
| { | nothing to the rick.
2. _Plants which take up space, but simply dilute the hay with
useless matter._
| {| All common, especially
Blunt-leaved Dock | Rumex obtusifolius {| in damp meadows, are
Crisp-leaved Dock | „ crispus {| not usually depastured,
Marsh Dock | „ palustris {| and have little or no
Field Sorrel | „ acetosa {| feeding properties
| {| when made into hay.
Burdock | Arctium Lappa | Common about the
| | borders of fields.
Butter Burr | Petasites vulgaris | Common near water
| | courses.
Cow Parsnip | Heracleum Sphondylium{| Very common and
Wild-beaked Parsley | Anthriscus vulgaris {| unsightly in
| {| pastures.
Ladies’ Smock | Cardamine pratensis | In damp places.
Yellow Rattle | Rhinanthus crista | In poor cold clays.
| galli |
Larger Hawkweeds, &c. | Hieracium species | About fields in
| | upland districts.
3. _Mechanical Plants, those with Spines, Prickles, Stings, &c._
Musk Thistle | Carduus nutans | Mostly a weed in
| | “seeds.”
Welted Thistle | „ acanthoides {|
Creeping Thistle | „ arvensis {| In hedgerows, borders
Cotton Thistle | „ eriophorus {| of fields, or the
Spear Thistle | „ lanceolatus {| open meadows.
Marsh Plume Thistle | „ palustris { | Damp or marsh
Meadow Plume Thistle | „ pratensis { | meadows.
Stemless Thistle | „ acaulis {| Common to poor
Carline Thistle | Carlina vulgaris {| calcareous uplands.
Common Stinging Nettle| Urtica dioica { | About the homestead,
Smaller Stinging | „ urens { | corners of fields,
Nettle | { | &c.
Wall Barley | Hordeum murinum {| About sandy soils,
| {| both in the meadow
| {| and arable.
4. _Poisonous Pasture-weeds, &c._
Meadow Saffron | Colchicum autumnale | Usual in calcareous
| | soils or marls.
Upright Buttercup | Ranunculus acris | In damp meadows.
Diseased Grasses | Secale cornutum {| In places where mist
| {| and damp prevail.
5. _Ill-favoured Weeds or Plants which communicate bad flavour to
Produce._
Crow Garlic | Allium vineale {| More or less in
Hogs’ Garlic | „ ursinum {| meadows and corners
| {| of fields.
Jack-by-the-Hedge | Erysimum Alliaria | About the hedgerow.
6. _Useless Grasses, or Grass-like Plants._
Rough Grasses | Species | Poor land and wet
| | places.
Sedges | Species {| In boggy, marshy, or
| {| wet sandy spots.
Rushes | Species {| In sandy spots on
| {| clays and poor soils.
----------------------+-----------------------+---------------------
1. Taking the broad-leaved plantain as the type of this list, we shall
have no difficulty in estimating the amount of mischief which it does.
Here is a plant, a single specimen of which not unfrequently occupies
nearly a square foot of ground, and as its leaves grow close to the
soil, it effectually prevents the growth of the grass, while few, if
any, leaves are cut with the scythe. The bare patches which result from
the cutting up of plantains from a lawn will sufficiently establish the
first position, whilst, if one occasionally meets with a few of the
leaves cut off in haymaking, it commits the further mischief of being so
long in drying as to retard the process of haymaking, or else to
endanger the safety of the rick. It is on account of this that the
plantain has in some districts got the name of the “Fire Grass.”
These are easily removed by the spud, especially if a little salt be
added to their crowns.
2. Taking it for granted that grasses are for the most part the best
plants for pasturage and hay, it follows that the plants of this list
can only be weeds, from their taking up space and living at the expense
of the wished-for crop, when, after all, the produce is either useless,
or so inferior that the whole product of the field is vitiated by their
presence. The best way to eradicate these and other large-leaved and
tall-stemmed plants is to pull them early in the season—the true theory
being, that by the repeated destruction of the leaves the rootstock
ultimately decays. Close depasturing also keeps them under for the same
reason, as the feet of horses and cattle so damage the leaves as to ruin
the growth and progress of the other parts of the plant, which latter
are requisite for its continuance.
3. Added to the evils just adverted to, this group is injurious from its
adverse mechanical appliances in spinous leaves, stings, and the like.
As regards thistles in pasture, they certainly argue great neglect, as
they may be so readily spudded out, in which the individual is
destroyed, and all hope of its progeny. It is, however, the fact that
these plants are sometimes left to seed that makes the matter of
destruction appear so hopeless, as the winged seeds of thistles may even
find their way to a clean farm from a dirty one, and roadsides and waste
places are constant sources of annoyance from this cause.
So fast has the corn thistle increased in Tasmania, as to make the
people groan under a “plague of thistles,” for which they have invoked
the aid of special State legislation.
The spud should be kept in active operation in the field, so as to
prevent these plants seeding, or indeed at all occupying any space; and
roadsides and waste places should be freed from these pests, either as
part of the duties of some public servant, or else as a matter of
private necessity.
As an illustration of the fecundity of thistles, we append the following
estimate of their seeding powers:—
SEED-DEVELOPMENT OF THISTLES.
+-------------------+-------------+-----------------------------------+
| Name. | Seeds to a | Description. |
| |single plant.| |
+-------------------+-------------+-----------------------------------+
| Musk thistle | 3,750 | 150 seeds to a single flower-head.|
| Spear thistle | 30,000 | 300 seeds to each. |
| Corn thistle | 5,000 | This plant also increases by |
| | | creeping underground stems. |
| Stemless thistle | 600 | This is sometimes so thick on the |
| | | downs that we have seen its flying|
| | | seeds almost like a snowstorm in |
| | | quantity and whiteness. |
+-------------------+-------------+-----------------------------------+
Farmers, however, mostly refuse an early summer attack both upon
thistles and nettles, quoting the following rustic rhyme for their
neglect:—
If thistles be cut in April,
They appear in a little while;
If in May,
They peep out the next day;
If cut in June,
They reappear very soon,
If in July,
They’ll hardly die;
If cut in August,
Die they must.
The truth is, that with spring-time they will bud forth again, but
always in a weakly condition. However, towards August the thistle has
performed all its functions for the year, and so prepared its larger
rootstocks for the future season; so that he would not be altogether so
mad who, in reference to the cutting of thistles and nettles in August
and September, should say—
Kill a fool’s head of your own;
They’ll die of themselves if you let them alone.
Beating nettles in the early part of the year with lithe ash sticks is
more effectual than the cleaner cut with the scythe, as the injuries are
not so easily got over.
4. That there are many plants in pastures which if eaten exclusively
would act as poisons we can have but little doubt, but there are a few
which would seem to be dangerous, even when partaken of in grass
mixtures. Of these, the meadow saffron is one of the most powerful.
This plant is abundant on the oolitic rocks of the Cotteswolds, about
which range we constantly hear of mischief from it. We extract the
following from a Cheltenham paper for September, 1844:—
It is only a few days since a farmer at Eyeford, near
Stow-on-the-Wold (Gloucestershire), had _ten calves killed by
eating of the flowers of the colchicum_, and two or three years
since three cows were destroyed by this plant in flower in the same
neighbourhood, whilst we frequently hear of many accidents to
cattle in the spring from eating the leaves, although it is
sometimes refused by them on account of its bitter and nauseous
taste. Yet there is no doubt but that accidents would be still more
frequent were it not that farmers keep their cattle from the
meadows in which it occurs in any quantity during the spring and
autumn months.
Pulling the leaves of the meadow saffron or colchicum will destroy it;
but a much more simple remedy is that of a thorough rolling with a
Croskill at the season when the flowers begin to expand, and again when
the broad leaves come up in spring; this so crushes and bruises the
whole plant, that a season or two of such treatment will be enough to
keep it under, if not to destroy it outright.
As regards the buttercups, the most acrid one—viz., the upright tall
species, a constant plant in marshy meadows and wet places—is the only
one to be particular about. Cattle do not usually eat it, but it finds
its way into the hay, and there is reason to think to its prejudice. It
is to be got under by draining and close depasturing, so that by
treading down it shall not seed; but poverty, induced by frequent
haymaking and wet, by keeping under the growth of what is better, gives
greater facility for the success of trash of this as well as of other
kinds.
Ergotised grasses, by which we mean those affected with the black spur,
in the place of the seed, or grain, is a common affection of grasses in
autumn in low-lying or in damp places, or where fields may be enveloped
in mist, as on some of our hill-ranges. This black spur is largest in
the cereal rye, but it occurs in most other species of grasses,
differing according to the size of their seeds.
Ergot of rye is used medicinally, and there is little doubt but that
ergot in other grasses is equally active. Its effects seem to be to
favour abortion; and there is reason to believe that it has caused many
valuable animals to abort. Some few years since the late Earl Ducie
suffered a loss of calves to an extent which he calculated to equal as
much as £1,000 in one year; at that time the grasses, consisting mostly
of the perennial rye-grass, were submitted to our inspection, and they
were much affected by ergot.
Keeping the cattle away from meadows known to present much of this
affected grass is the best remedy; but this will seldom be necessary,
except in unusually wet and warm seasons, which are sure to produce
these fungoid affections.
5. All the plants in this section are known to give a garlic-like
flavour to the dairy produce of the fields in which they grow. The two
first especially render butter unfit for market; so that if abundant
they would take off a large portion of the value of the field. They
occur mostly in patches, and should be pulled out as soon as strong
enough: if this be done year by year, it will be found to diminish in an
increased ratio; and two or three seasons will be enough to rid the
field of so great a pest, and would be well worth doing if it cost
much—which it ought not to do—as these weeds usually occur in otherwise
tolerably good meadows.
The jack-by-the-hedge is usually confined to the vicinity of the fences,
and may be removed by the hand or spud. It is a prolific seeder; so that
on no account should it ever be allowed to ripen its seed.
6. Rough grasses and grass-like weeds are far too common in poor, wild,
and neglected pastures. In their action they come closely to those of
our second section; they are indications of a want of drainage, which
operation well performed soon causes the death of this group, which end
is greatly facilitated by manuring and depasturing as the drains begin
to act.
In concluding this description, it may be well to remark that many more
plants might have been included in the different sections; but enough
has been done to show that a pasture, to be good, must not consist of
any plants which chance, accident, or more commonly neglect, may throw
together. In arable culture one-half the expense is, in one way or
other, connected with weeding, and we are of opinion, that if only one
shilling per acre was spent on the weeding of pasture, it would yield
300 per cent. profit on the outlay.