The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-04-19 00:00:00

WEEDING SEED CROPS.

As regards the prospects of the present year's crop our
own observations would lead to the conclusion that
seldom have the injuries which early frost inflicted been
,nor, thoroughly repaind than during the past month,
clovers especially tillering remarkably well, And rye.
,frame 4 showing the good effects of is mild season. There
i 4. however, one circumstance in the " seeds" of this
which more than in •ov previous season that we
con year
faeollect has Leen preshic!iVC of touch ittischief. We
lryori Iwllarllehveerreryaiin'idtelegn:rotruCtil'idigv'e kind. We have this week
so much taller, is ln "seeds"
refer to the quantity of cereaarlif
which, 'oseeurng leaves
: with which they
arewicie,e,uveci
°lowered some barley, the renisins of last year's crop,
more :min a foot high, with unusually broad flags over-
iliaddwing the clover crop, and it is needless to say ,
that where this is the case to any great extent the crop
is much injured. If we inquire into the causes that
have led to this to a greater extent this year than
usual, we shall doubtlect find that the good crops of
corn of last season, and the eireunistance that wheat and
barley were ripened almost together had caused much
grain to be shed in the hurry of getting it together, and
the subsequent weather has augmented a growth
which a harder winter than the one we have experienced
would almost have prevented. This question is inte-
resting as showing how one crop may become • weed to
its successor, and therefore how touch care should be
exercised in harvesting the previous crop, so that as
little shed seeds should be left as possible. It is not ,
perhale. si.ry ea:y to point to a remedy for cases of this
kind, thoogh its necessity must be evident, still even
now 1111,01 may be done by the scythe to destroy
, the inlet Mp, r. While upon this subject let us offer a
few remarks upon the cultivation of " seeds," if indeed
th y can he said to be cultivated at all. Clover and
grass see I, are sown with the barley that has succeeded
the tuniip cii p, so that it is usually thought that they
succeed to is soil tolerably free from weeds; but it
should bs remembered that bar:ey is not hoed, aid few
farmers have tnd a pretty good weed admixture to
separate froni the g's dt at threshing. And b—diles, it
must be remembered that, before the barlev is ripe, and
even in its cutting, e gli weeds are usualty sown to
ensure their continnance. Supposing, however, the
5t0.16 to have escape., this 11001 CC of contamination we
ore able to a seri, from an examination ..(.1O sample:. of
seeds, consisting of ryi-gra.ses and clovers the
tot that as many as eight hundred or nine hundred
thousand weed seeds are often sown with each bushel of
the crop seed ! A sum ...I wonderfully large that it is
mit astonishing the crop should he usually so foul.
Hence we may expect the result which we know
usually occurs, but which is not sufficiently attended to,
viz., that clover and grass are greatly injured by Wer,ll.
We say little attended to, as we doubt whether on an
average so much as Gil. per acre is spent on the weediug
of this crop. The report from • gessl farmer may pro-
bably not thus :—" Spudding out thistles. pulling rip
docks, Le.. gay Is. per acre." And (ruin this it may be
safely gathered that little besides docks or thistles are
looked alter; indeed, many other weeds tire almost
considered as • good part of the crop. If a crop be
worth cultivating at all it is worth looking after well,
and if we sue weeds conic up with the seed crop, we are
anxious to have them removed therefrom 1“ (rein any
other crop; and from practice and experience we can
assure those whom it may concern, that if need be, from
26. 6.1, to re. per au.: fur this is not thrown away ; for
if such seeds be iittemted for hay. froml cwt. to 5 cot.,
or even more, will result from an ellicietit use of the
hoe and occasionally iv ns the fork in a clover field ; and
the good we may thereby do is not altogether confined
to the oeel.ion. Lot if set about at the proper time.
namely th, open d .ps in early spring, all chance of
seeding is prevented. ttud future work will thus become
much leas onerous and expensive. Gardeners'
Chronicle.

THE Ci,Nhill • • '.. • or Anneietxt Iftstrues.—The
supply of phosphor.. ..eul in bones and mineral ',hoe-
pliatee is inexhaustiloi . Alnico: every year bring, to our
knowledge some to•ie source of this substance.
Potash, though not ,u abundont as an article of com-
merce, is neverthele,, so widely diffused that fear: of
exhaustion need not be entertained. Our supplies of
nitrogen alone are limited. The richly nitrogenous
guano' are fast hiOng exhausted, and the tune is not
very far distant when the lancer's only resources for
this element will he the refuse of our manufactories,
and the residual products (straw, excrement. Ac.) of his
own oroduce. It is true that about one tentuillionth
part of the atwomphere is ammonia, and this is slowly
absorbed by wine soils, but not with sufficient rapidity
for the demand of cereal crops, while on the other hand
such are the laws of diffusion that the ammonia in
many soils is disopated in the air. The labour of col-
lecting bones and importing mineral phosphatee, and
grinding them, and of bringing together the materials,
ke., for the manufacture of sulphuric acid to dissolve
them, together with thot of transporting the super-
phosphate funned into all parts of the country, coma--
tut, the most , rions element in the couilitions that
took.: phosphoric acid important to the farmer. Potash
is no kos importont as regards the labour required to
bring it within reach of cultivated mope, from its
venom; source, of supply. And when we contemplate
the thotauce of our clepusite of guano, and take into con-
sideration the labour required to collect. shiP, trans Port,
unship, awl distribute over the country, we see that
with regool to our supplies of nitr,• , ti form thi*eiiiiice,
labour is a most serious demon ~,..egot the cou,es
that render nitrogen imoortont to Co, agricultiai,t.
Whatever might be the idecolute value of the three con-
ditions juot considered, that value would have no agri-
cultural importance if this fourth condition did nut
posseos a value, but auulysit shows the presence of a
very large percentage of phosphoric arid, potash, and
nitrogen in cultivated crops. Chemical analysis is coin-
latent to give an exact knowledge of what the plant
has received and retained at the time of anolysie, but it
has not yet wade clear all points in connection with
what the plant receives and evolves or excretes. It has
not yet solved the que*tion so to the trareas that must
be in the soil in order that the rootlet.: may get • full
supply at the period of the maximum activity td the
growth of the plant, nor 1.,,s :t inea•ured th-- eopabilities
of the latter to get its constituents been natural sources.
Therefore we are incompetent from a silutple chemical
view of the subject to decide a hat iv tie: value of the
quantity of the several eh 1111 l rial amigo dent., required
by cultivated crops at the hotel oi the agriculturist.
Some chemists, who were I tluicriti4 utt.l:: un unfortu-
nate Nat front iire•iiiwireiVi.sl ip.li.wils, bare been unwill-
ing to admit tl iit Ille ,1114.111 Ceil follliil ill VIM& by
analeste do not carn-e* ,via. s the value of the
demand, hi the eoil, for those :ohotonta • by the plant.
Rut tli, .- NI. - jitilgiii •:t is nut the* unhappily
affected, wol id,., ~,, .7... re of O.: (-eta now pre-
sente•l by ogrielltoral pioi ti.-. ore ohliesl to admit.
however • Awl,: in Our iziiorruite iil consuls it nuiy
seem. tbst the ilwintities given by chetuicol analysis du
not gairre,tly spiv.s the deuitivis of the plant for allow
talea .lu, in the soil. Thu., hind in.,' refuse to pro-
duce inure Coin half a crop of wheat, the applicatiou of
an atone:once of all this nonee.l Coli,titilenhi found in
the a-1 will WAt give a fell crop, but the addition of a
nate 'genie's tuotiure will do so. Yet this same land
ono7 give a geed crop of beans, although the latter
Menne., is more nitrog,n thou the wheat. And,
who! ,s -.CO more ,l i ~, malotio, a full crop of wheat inay
be ,rortik oiler the heotio. These lasts base received uo
eatidostury explanotion.—Dr. Pave.
Llum.uvanr or :iiaanurn.—Liebig gave the greatest
schittitic stimulus to agriculture by tilzuestilig the use of
vitriol or other =hit to render the Om-plates soluble,
sod therefore inure quickly availohle for the nourish-
ment of the plant, which result wa, i ~,,, neliately acknow-
Iledged from its lir-t male in 1814) and 1641 ; the effect
of tido solubilitc ben.; to bring the turnip quickly put
the Ile. Abouo LOW mucus, Witt first iutroduced into
' 1-1e.1,110. It ll s undoubtedly been a great boon to
:A ..! Li iiituristi ; for, bvilides, a large amount of nitrogen
(the aetive jailie.ple of horn, soot, auil other aumioniacal
manure.), it contains' plueophate of lime, a manuring
prite-iple of bones, some beim; mu a soluble state, and
liseing therefore the tonotsirlies of dissolved 1.11011-
pht.-s. Coprolites were diewvered to be mouure about
I, ',one time ' 'iot is, about Ink) b ; an I though their
!duel-hate of 1.1.. is ill ii Clollilltioill onalopted fur solu•
t ion by natural cause., by redacing thou to& line powder
stet treetment with acid they are dissolved. Thus we
have opened Uil an amount of mineral manure of vast
extent, the discovery of which lima, happily, been numb
taneoue with that of a process necessary for its proper
utiliaation.—Uurdenrea Chruaide.