Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/765

 WEE

WEEDS (Cycl) — This term is ufed by our hufbandmen to ex- prefs fuch plants as come up in their lands, and are different from the crop fown there.

No plants are ufelefs in themfelves; but in refpect to the far- mer they are both ufelefs and hurtful, when they come in this manner, and devour the nourifliment deftined for the crop of what was fown.

All Weeds are pernicious ; but fome much more fo than others: Some are very mifchievous, but eafily killed; fome lefs hurtful, but more difficultly rooted out; and fome have both qualities together. The bardeft to kill are thofe which grow readily from feed, and have roots, every part of which is qualified for the becoming a flout plant in a f'mall time ; the word are couch-grafs, colts-foot, melilot, fern, and fome others of the like kind.

Some of thefe pernicious plants only affect the crop by ftarv- ing, and leffening its increafe ; but there are others which add to this mifch'sef, that of (boiling what they leave ; thefe infect the crop with their own naufeous fmell, fuch as melilot, gar- lic, and fome others. It is fuppofed by fome, that Weeds ftarve the fown plants, by taking up the room they fhould poffefs ; hut this is an error, and the real way in which they prejudice them, is, the devouring the nourifliment that they fhould imbibe.

This is eafily proved by the following experiment. Let three beds of the fame foil, equal in fize, and equally prepared, be fown with the fame corn ; let the firft of thefe be kept clear from Weeds ; in thefecondj let the Weeds befuffered to grow up among the corn ; and in the third, flick up a quantity of dead (ticks, greater in bulk than the Weeds. It will be found that the produce in the third bed will be equal to that of the firfl, though as much and even more room is taken up by the flicks, than by the Weeds in the fecond ; but the quantity in the fecond bed will be lefs, in proportion to the Weeds, than in any other. The quantity of nourifhment loft, is not proportioned to the quantity of the Weeds that exhauft it ; for thefe being of different fpecies, fome are greatly more mif- chievous and devouring than others.

The farmer finds it impoffible ever wholly to deftroy the Weeds in his lands ; and the reafon feems to be, that in many kinds the feeds will lie many years in the ground, and fuccef- fively grow, fome one year, fome another; fo that the de- ilroying the crop entirely for one year, docs not kill them for fucceeding ones. The feed of red poppy will lie twenty years in the ground, in a land all that time occupied by faintfom ; and if it be, after that, ploughed for corn, they will all grow, and fill the field.

The feeds of thefe plants will never all come up in one year, becaufe they mult have their exact degrees of depth, moifture, and covering ; the feeds which want any of thefe one year, lie to grow up another. The befl defence the farmer has hi- therto found againft thefe enemies, is to endeavour their de- ftruction by a mmmcr fallow. This, if the weather be pro- pitious, does make fome havock among them, but it never deflroys them entirely. If the feeds lie (o high that the fum- mer's heat parches them up, or fo deep that it cannot reach them, they do not germinate, and are by that means faved for another year. And another thing, which faves a very great number of them, is their being able to bear the heat and moilture of a whole year without growing. Wild oats, and many other feeds of Weeds are of this kind. If you gather thefe when ripe, and fow them in the mofl careful manner, watering them at times, and taking all the care of them that is neceffary to the mofl tender plants, they will not grow till the fpring come twelve-month after they were fowed, and fometimes not till the fpring after that ; that is, two years and a half after the time of putting them into the ground. It is plain from this, that no art can deflroy thefe by fallowing, or other means, in one year.

The common way of weeding among the young corn, turns out to very little good ; if this is done while the Weeds are young, the grcateft part of them are only cut or broken off near the ground ; this, inflead of deftroy ing them, gives them new vigour, and they moot up with many heads in the place of one, and draw more nourifhment than at firft : if, on the other hand, it is done when they are grown up, the relief comes after the difeafe ; for by that time they have robbed the corn of all the nourifhment, or nearly all, they could. Hand-weeders alfo frequently do more harm in the corn, by ■treading it down, than they do good by taking out the Weeds. This operation fometimes cofts the farmer twelve (billings an acre, befide the mifchief done, and yet there remain Weeds -enough for a crop the next year from feeds. The method of horfe-hoeing is a very excellent way of curing lands of this difeafe, fo long as it is carefully practifed ; one of the greateft advantages it will bring the farmer, is, that no Weeds will grow up but thofe whofe feeds are brought in the air, and thefe are but very few in companion of the other kinds.

Weeds, in mining, a term ufed by our Englifh diggers toex- prefs any fort of unprofitable fubftance found among the ores of metals. They fecm to have borrowed the phrafe from the gardeners ; and as every thing with them is a Weed, except what they have planted, and expe& to gather, fo every thing Sup pl. Vol. II.

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is a Weed with the miners, except the thing they are finkiiffi tor. bee the articles Digging and Mining. The principal fubftances known in our mines under the names or treats, ars mundic or marcafite ; this is of three forts white, yellow, and green; daze, a kind of glittering talcy irone, of the telaugium kind, which endures the fire, and is of various colours and hardnefles ; iron-moulds, orpyritE; caul, which is brownifh and fpongy ; and glider, which is a fort of talc. Phil. Tranf. N°. 69.

Bair-WssD. See the article Hair.

WEEK (Cyd.)—WEEK-FiJb, in zoology, a name given by fome to a very delicate nth, caught on the Eaft Indian fnores, and called by the Dutch there the wit vifch. May's Ichthyo- graphy, append, p. 6. Seethe article Wi-r-FiJIi.

WEEVER, in ichthyology, the Englifh name for the fifli cal- led by Willughby and other authors, the draco-marinus, or lea-dragon, and the araneus-marinus, or fea-fpider. Some alfo have called it trachurus.

It is properly, according to the Artedian fyftem, a fpecies of the tracbinus, and is diftinguiflied by that author by the name of the tracbinus without beards, and with the lower jaw longeft. See the articles Dk Aco-Marinus and-TRACHl-

NUS.

It is to be obferved that Willughby and Gefner have defcribed what they call two other fpecies of this fifll ; but thefe are all found, on a clofe obfervation, to be the fame fifh, differing only in refpect of age and fize, or other accidental variations" owing to the like natural caufes.

WEEVIL, in natural hiftory, the name of a fmall infeft which does great damage in magazines of corn, by eating into the feyeral grains, and deftroying their whole fubftance. This creature is fomewhat bigger than a large loufe, and is of the (carab kind, having two pretty, jointed, tufted horns, and a trunk or piercer, projecting from the forepart of its head : at the end of this trunk, which is very long in propor- tion to its body, there are a fort of forceps, or (harp teeth, with which it gnaws its way into the heart of the grain, either to feek its food, or to depofit its eggs there. By keeping thefe creatures alive in glafs tubes, with a few grains of wheat, their copulation and manner of generation have been difcovered. The female perforates a grain of wheat, and therein depofits a fingle egg, or, at the utmoft, two eggs ; and this lire does to five or fix grains every day for feveral days together. Thefe eggs, which are not larger than a grain of fand, in about a week produce as odd a fort of white mago-ot, which wriggles its body very much about, but is very little able to move from place to place : this, in about a fortnight, turns to an aurelia, from which is produced the perfect Weevil. This deftrucrive creature is itfelf very fubject to be deftroyed, and when in the egg or aurelia ftate, is very fubject to be eaten by mites. Baker's Microf. p. 221. Leuienhoeck.

WEIGHT (Cycl.)— In the Philofophical Tranfadions f we have an account of the analogy betwixt Englifli Weights and meafures by Mr. Barlow. He advances that antiently a cubic foot of water was affirmed as a general ftandard for liquids, and weighed 62 pounds and a half! And, in effect, we find fa the Weight of a foot of pump-water to be 62 pounds 8 oz. — [»N°. 458. Sea. 1. " Phil. Tranf. N°. 169.] This cubic foot multiplied by 32, gives two thoufand, the Weight of a ton. And hence 8 cubic feet of water made a hoglhead, and four hogflleads a ton, in capacity and denomi- nation, as well as Weight.

Dry meafures were raifed on the fame model. A bufhel of wheat, afiiimed as a general ftandard for all forts of grain,"alfo weighed 62 pounds and a half. Eight of thefe bufhels made a quarter, and 4 quarters a ton weight. See the article Bushel.

Coals were fold by the chaldron, fuppofed to weigh a ton, or 20oopounds. See the article Chaldron, Cycl. Hence a ton in Weight is the common ftandard for liquids, wheat, and coals. Had this analogy been kept upj it would have prevented the confufion now complained of. It may be reafonably fuppofed that corn and other commodi- ties, both dry and liquid, were firft fold by Weight, and that meafures, for convenience, were afterwards introduced, bear- ing fome analogy to the weight before ufed. Mr. Barlow's fcheme fhews the reafon why the word ton is applied both to Weight and liquid meafure, viz. becaufe the fame quantity of liquor is a ton both in Weight and meafure. Hence the word quarter may alio be explained. Biihop Fleetwood a guefied that it fignified the fourth part of fome Weight, and not of any meafure. And it feems plainly to fignify the fourth part of a ton, or 2000 pounds b. — [ a Chron. Pret. p. 72. " Phil. Tranf. ibid.]

Weicht of the Human Body. It is to be obferved, tbattheheat and drynefs of the air both leflen the Weight of the body, and the cold and moiftnefs of the air both increafe this Weight. See the article Moisture of the Air. Much fleep, much food, and little exercifc, are the principal things which increafe the Weight of the body, and make ani- mals grow fat. Consequently, if the weight of the body be too great for good and uninterrupted health, it may be lef- fened by diminifhing fleep and food, and by increasing exer- 5 T cife.