gates kept carefully closed. Not only is
it frequently in England, and almost
invariably in Ireland plagued by the insubordination
of the weeds allowed to live within its
bounds, and to lie there at the root of general
society; but it is, every summer, regularly
besieged by ragged regiments. There are the
chickweeds, the hawkbits, the thistles with
their white plumes waving and their lances
shouldered, the poppies, reddest of republicans
the black mustards, whose family,
perhaps, has caused more tears to be shed
than any race, except that of the onions.
There are the nettles with their poisoned
barbs, the dandelions each with fire upon
his head. These storm the field, master
the outworks, and do not a little mischief to
the regiments that lift their shining spears
within. For, to leave figures of speech for
figures of arithmetic, here are some facts that
have been stated by Sir John Sinclair; the
result of three experiments.

First Experiment. Seven acres of light,
gravelly land were fallowed and sown broadcast;
one acre was measured off, and not
a weed was pulled out of it; the other six
were carefully weeded. The unweeded acre
produced eighteen bushels; each weeded
acre twenty-two bushels and a half, which
is a quarter more of produce, due to
weeding.

Second Experiment.  A six-acre field was
sown with barley, in fine tilth and well
manured.  The weeding, owing to a great
abundance of charlock, cost twelve shillings
an acre.  The produce of an unweeded
acre was only thirteen bushels, of a weeded
acre twenty-eight bushels.  Produce by
weeding was thus more than doubled, and
the land also left clean for succeeding crops.

Third Experiment. Six acres were sown
with oats. One acre ploughed but once, and,
unmanured, produced only seventeen bushels;
another acre ploughed three times, manured
and weeded, produced thirty-seven bushels,
being a gain, say of ten bushels by the
manure and ten more by the weeding.

It would thus appear that we are within
the truth in saying that, where the weeds
are not kept under, there is a loss incurred
of one-fourth of the crop. The weeds rob the
growth with which they are mixed of some part
of the food which the ground holds for the use
of plants; they clog the ground mechanically;
they keep air and light from the young seed;
they injure the crop seriously when there
is high wind or heavy rain; they delay the
processes of harvesting and stacking; and, by
so doing, increase the farmer's risk; while the
grain that has ripened under all these
disadvantages goes to the stack worse corn than it
would have been had it been grown unaccompanied
by weeds.

The suppression of weeds has been
considered in France a duty not unworthy of
being  enforced by law. A French farmer
may sue his neighbour who neglects to

destroy the thistles upon his land at the
proper seasons, or he may employ people to
do it at his neighbour's cost.  In Denmark,
there is a law to oblige farmers to root
up the corn-marigold.  The oldest regulation
against the corn-marigold was probably
that in a statute of Alexander the Second
of Scotland; which, in or about the year
twelve hundred and twenty, denounced
that man to be a traitor who poisons
the king's lands with weeds and introduces
into them a host of enemies.  Bondsmen
who had this plant in their corn were fined
a sheep for each stalk, and a Scottish baron
held what were called goul courts, for the
purpose of fining farmers in whose growing
crops three or more heads of corn-marigold
could be detected.

In modern times a clause of a bill which
enforced the extirpation of weeds in hedges
and along roadsides, passed our English
House of Commons, but was thrown out by the
Lords. Yet it is possible that great advantage
might result, from one or two legal provisions
of this kind. The loss by weeds in England
is not very great; in Ireland the fields are
overrun with them, and a crusade against
them has been organised by Mr. William
Donnelly, the Registrar-General of Agricultural
Statistics.  The subject is indeed in
Ireland one of national importance, and the
zeal of Mr. Donnelly has caused its importance
to be very widely recognised.  He
has written to the judges, and convinced
them of the wisdom of directing the attention
of grand juries at assizes, and of county
surveyors, to the great hurt resulting from
the growth of weeds along the sides of
public roads.  He has caused the Irish
Royal Agricultural Society to resolve:
"That as great injury arises to the
farming classes in this country from the
growth of weeds along the sides of public
roads, whose seeds being allowed to ripen
and shed, are spread over the adjoining
lands, a circular be immediately addressed to
the grand juries of the several counties,
soliciting them to give directions to the
county surveyors to make it imperative upon
road contractors to cut down and remove all
weeds, more particularly thistles, docks, and
rag-weeds, before the first of June, and at
such other periods in the year as may prevent
their injurious effects to the farmer."

Moreover, Mr. Donnelly addressed a circular
upon this subject of weeds to the
county surveyors throughout Ireland, asking
them to seek authority from the grand
juries to introduce into all road contracts a
clause compelling the contractors to keep
the roads, footpaths, and fences, clear of
weeds.  Another circular he addressed to
the chairman and directors of all Irish railways,
begging them to be so good as to give
directions to have all weeds immediately
removed which might be found growing on the
sides, embankments, cuttings, and fences of