CHAPTER XII.

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

Broad-leaved Plantain.	Plantago media	-	The leaves of these plants grow too close to the ground to be eaten off by cattle or to cut for hay.
Dent-de-lion	Leontodon taraxacum
Daisy	Bellis perennis

Cowslip	Primula veris	-	These plants take up much room in growing, they are not eaten by cattle, and, as they die before haymaking, yield little or nothing to the rick.
Primrose	„vulgaris
Green-winged Orchis	Orchis Morio
Early Purple Orchis	„ mascula
2. Plants which take up space, but simply dilute the hay with useless matter.
Blunt-leaved Dock	Rumex obtusifolius	-	All common, especially in damp meadows, are not usually depastured, and have little or no feeding properties when made into hay.
Crisp-leaved Dock	„ crispus
Marsh Dock	„ palustris
Field Sorrel	„ acetosa

Burdock	Arctium Lappa	-	Common about the borders of fields.

Butter Burr	Petasites vulgaris	-	Common near water courses.

Cow Parsnip	Heracleum Sphondylium	-	Very common and unsightly in pastures.
Wild-beaked Parsley	Anthriscus vulgaris	-	Very common and unsightly in pastures.

Ladies’ Smock	Cardamine pratensis	-	In damp places.

Yellow Rattle	Rhinanthus crista galli	-	In poor cold clays.

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	-	In hedgerows, borders of fields, or the open meadows.
Creeping Thistle	„ arvensis
Cotton Thistle	„ eriophorus
Spear Thistle	„ lanceolatus

Marsh Plume Thistle	„ palustris	-	Damp or marsh meadows.
Meadow Plume Thistle	„ pratensis	-	Damp or marsh meadows.

Stemless Thistle	„ acaulis	-	Common to poor calcareous uplands.
Carline Thistle	Carlina vulgaris	-	Common to poor calcareous uplands.

Common Stinging Nettle	Urtica dioica	-	About the homestead, corners of fields, &c.
Smaller Stinging Nettle	„urens	-	About the homestead, corners of fields, &c.

Wall Barley	Hordeum murinum	-	About sandy soils, both in the meadow and arable.
4. [80]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 meadows and corners of fields.
Hogs’ Garlic	„ ursinum	-	More or less in 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 single plant.	Description.
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.