Couch Grass (Triticum Repens Linn), a troublesome plant which infests arable lands, and is known by a great variety of names in different localities, such as twitch, witch, quitch, squitch, quack, quake, dog grass, chandler grass, wheat grass. The plant is about 2 ft. high, having rough leaves, somewhat hairy, and trailing at the lower joints, and propagates both by its seed and its jointed roots and stems. Although a grass, it performs the office of a vile weed, being an insidious creeper, multiplying and ramifying itself in all directions. Its scraggy roots go deep into the soil, and take firm hold. Each joint can produce a new plant, which in turn, if not destroyed, will produce others beyond number. Gathering and burning the grass with all its roots is the only effectual remedy against it. A crop of turnips, whose broad leaves exclude sun and air, and the frequent disturbance of the soil in hot, dry weather, are useful in subduing it. Cutting it with the hoe in wet weather only produces a fresh and larger crop. Cleaning land thoroughly in autumn keeps the roots from penetrating the soil deeply, and from getting a strong hold, almost impossible to be broken. In the early autumn the roots strike horizontally and obliquely, and then go down till the growth of the plant is stopped by the cold of winter.

The roots are nutritious, and are sometimes cleaned and fed to pigs, horses, and cattle. In some northern countries they have been used with flour in making bread. The ashes of couch grass contain only about 10 per cent, of potash and 5 1/2 per cent, of lime. Prof. Volcker found a little more than 20 per cent, of bone earth in it. The large amount of soluble silica found in its ashes explains why clay soils, rich in alkaline silicates, are conducive to its growth. In parts of Europe where paring and burning are much practised, it is known that the fouler the land is made by couch grass, the larger is the ensuing crop of turnips.

Couch Grass (Triticum repens).