The Botanist's Companion, Volume II by William Salisbury
page 40 of 397 (10%)
page 40 of 397 (10%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
|
as the Charlock and Poppy, they will flower among the corn, and the
seeds will ripen and drop before harvest, and be ready to vegetate as soon as the corn is removed; and if perennial, as Thistles, Docks, Couch-grass, and a long tribe of others in this way, well known to the farmer, they will be found to take such firm possession of the ground that they will not be got rid of without great trouble and expense. "Although the crop of corn thus obtained is valuable, yet when a good and permanent meadow is wanted, and when all the strength of the land is required to nurture the young grass thus robbed and injured, the proprietor is often at considerable expense the second year for manure, which, taking into consideration the trouble and disadvantage attending it, more than counterbalances the profit of the corn crop. "To accomplish fully the formation of permanent meadows, three things are necessary: namely to clean the land, to produce good and perfect seeds adapted to the nature of the soil, and to keep the crop clean by eradicating all the weeds, till the grasses have grown sufficiently to prevent the introduction of other plants. The first of these matters is known to every good farmer,--the second may be obtained,--and the third may be accomplished by practising the modes in which I have succeeded at a small comparative expense and trouble, and which is instanced in a meadow immediately fronting Brompton Crescent, the property of Angus Macdonald, Esq. which land was very greatly encumbered with noxious weeds of all kinds: but, by the following plan, the grasses were encouraged to grow up to the exclusion of all other plants; and though it has been laid down more than ten years, the pasturage is now at least equal to any in the county. "Grass seeds may be sown with equal advantage both in spring and autumn. |
|


