The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1897-03-27
WILD GARLIC.


OF Efadleatlon.
A recent bulletin issued by the
United States Department of Agri-
culture has been received at this of
fee. 1t deals with weed which
has prolific growth in this section of
country. A few extracts are given
from the bulletin which may prove
of service to cur farmer friends.
The most injurious weed at the
present time in the middle Atlantic
States is wild garlic (AHium zine
ale). From Pennsylvania to South
Carolina and Tennessee, it is known
to townspeopIe as disfiguring lawns,
to farmers and millers as pest in
wheat, and to .dairymen and their
customers as running dairy products
when eaten by COWS in the pastures.
In different parts of the region where
it grows in this country it is called
wild garlic and wild onion" and
less frequently field garlic and
'.crow garlic"
1t is not native but has proba-
bly, infested the country for at least
fifty years. The damage caused by
this weed is very great and as it
makes itself known by its extremely
disagreeable odor and taste in many
articles of food it is very obnoxious.
1t taints the meat of animals pastur-
| ing where it abounds. The milk of
cows eating it is very offensive as
well as the butter made from such
milk while any food containing such
milk is rendered almost unfit for use.
1t also ripens about the time wheat
Tdoes and it is impossible to separate
it from the wheat. Consequently
all food products derived from such
wheat is badly tainted 1t not only
hurts the flour but it almost ruins
the rollers by forming a varnish like
coating ON them. This is so persis.
tent that the rollers must be cleaned
often. Each pair requires from ten
to twenty minutes work,
Lawns are also ruined by this weed
and an artistic reason is added to
the other more practical ones for its
destruction.
METHODS OF ERADICATION.
Many methods for eradicating
wild garlic have beeh tried, most of
them failing thus far of complete
success, but many of them effective
in reducing the quantity of the weed.
A piece of land nearly an acre in
extent at Germantown, Pa, was
trenched by hand to depth of
about three feet and all of the garlic
bulbs found were picked out and de
stroyed. The pest was greatly re-
duced, but enough of the bulbs es-
capped to reseed the land within
few years On a very. small area
trenching may be practicable, but it
would be easier and more thorough
to dig out each tnft of plants sepa-
rately in the fall and burn the bulbs,
together with the earth surrounding
them.
Hand pulling has been tried. This
is most effective just at the flower
ing time, since most of the young
secondary bulbs will then cling to
the base of the old bulb. Some of
them are likely to be left, however,
even in soft, cultivated land. More
over, the stalks are somewhat hid
den by other vegetation at this time.
Cultivation with hoed crops has
been tried, but this alone is ineffeet-
i've, since the garlic makes its prin-
eipal growth in the fall and early
spring. To destroy wild garlic by
blowing and cultivation, the land
should be plowed late in the fall,
the depth of the furrow varying in
different soils, so as to leave as many
bulbs as possible near the surface to
be exposed to alternate freezing and
thawing. Any surviving shoots
should be destroyed by early spring
cultivation, and after thorough fit
ting, oats or barley may be sown or
corn planted. Oats or barley are
better than hoed crop unless the
latter can be well cultivated until
midsummer. This process repeated
for two successive years will destroy
nearly all the garlic, and the re-
naming plants may be more eco
nomically destroyed by other meth
DDS. In soils that wash badly cowpeas
or crimson clover may well be sub
stituted for oats. If these are plowed
under with a liberal supply of lime,
they will enrich the land and aid
considerably in preventing the soil
from washing. The following rota-
ton of crops is recommended by
Prof. w. f. Massey, in Bulletin No.
175 of the North Carolina Expert
ment Station:
Plow the land before any top sets
are found and SOW field peas, two
bushels per acre. Cut the peas for
hay, chop the land over with cuta-
way harrow, and SOW in August
crimson clover at the rate of Is
pounds per acre, with a thin scatter
ing of winter oats. Cut oats and |
clover together for hay; put the
land in corn and follow with winter
oats and red clover. BY the time
this crop comes off the onions will
be about gone.
nv NiOpo Ndh doubblcoo NC Ndlltu
to advantage in different localities
maintaining always the principle of |
short rotation of well cultivated |
crops, alternating with thick smoth-
ering crops.
Shaving the soil near the surface
as often as the green shoots Of gar
lie appear, is recommended by Mr.. |
r. L. Watts in Bulletin No. 2, Vol. |
VIII, of the Tennessee Agricultural !
Experiment Station. This method |
is expensive, but if thoroughly fol-
lowed out it is almost certain to
prove effective. The work may be
done with tool similar to broad |
scraper without back.
A liberal application of lime in
pastures and meadow will improve
the growth of grasses and clovers,
and thus aid in crowding out garlic. I
This will be found especially effect.
i've in soils deficient in lime, as is
the case throughout large proper
ton of the garlic-infested area.
Hogs confined on garlic patches