The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-06-05
AgriCult E.
THE WILD GARLIC MON.
THE WILD GARLIC

.CommOn North Carolina W. Pest
correspondence of The Progressive Farmer
One of the worst pests known to
agriculture is rapidly spreading in
North Carolina wherever wheat is
grown. This is the wild garlic or
onion-ALLiun VineGLe. Like the
garden onion-ALLiatna cepd, this is a
European plant. 1t has been intro
duced and spread chiefly as an i'm
purity in wheat seed. The seeds of
the wild onion or garlic are also found
in samples of badly cleaned clover
seed. 1t is more commonly a weed
inmOist pastures and meadows where
itusually grows in clumps. 1t spreads
slowly but surely, however, and soon
overruns the field.
The wild garlic is a very hardy
plant. With US its main growth is
made late in fall and early in spring.
1t is one of the first plants to shoot
in spring. In the absence of other
green food cattle greedily eat this
weed, though at other times they
avoid it. The weed gives to the
milk, butter and cheese of COWS such
a disgusting odor that few people
with ordinary noses can be induced
to touch such foods. The worst part
of it is that dairyman who may
have a fine herd of COWS and take
great pains to keep his dairy house
and vessels clean may by the unsus-
pected contamination of the milk by
garlic disgust his best customers and
get a reputation for filthy practices,
running his business beyond repair.
The plant itself resembles the gar
den onion, but is smaller. 1t has
cylindrical, hollow leaves which
bear at the tips first small umbel
or bunch of flesh colOred flowers
and then bunch of bulblets like the
top onions" or top sets" of the
garden onion. The plant also propa-
gates by offsets from the bulbous
base and in some places, but rarely,
BY true black seeds. The plant
thrives best on land free from lime.
1t is therefore most troublesome on
the Atlantic slope east of the Ale
ghany range.
The bulblets produced at the tips
of the leaves are the chief means of
spreading the pest. These are about
the same size and shape as wheat
seeds and ripen about the same time
as winter wheat. 1t is next to i'm
possible to separate the bulblets
from the grain. When wheat mixed
with garlic bulblets is ground into
-four, the flower has the sickening
Odor of the garlic plant and becomes
practically unsalable., Moreover the
buIblets gum up the rollers of the
mill and so penetrate the stones of
buhr mills that these have to be
dressed down with chisels to get rid
of it. The weed is therefore a terror
to -four mill men.
But the chief damage is done to
dairymen. 1t also taints the flesh of
grazing animals The flesh of a steer
or sheep taken from a garlic-infested
pasture and killed at once will have
such foul odor that the carcass is
liable to be condemned and sent to
the offal tank. If, however, such
animals are yarded for three or four
days before killing and fed other
food, the garlic odor will all evapo-
rate and cannot be detected in the
flesh
With garlic tainted milk, cheese
and butter the case is different. Milk
absorbs odors very readily and holds
them with tenacity. Dairy cattle
running on garlic-infested pastures
should be brought to the barn yard
at least two hours before milking
time. They should be milked either
in the open air or in a draught and
the milk removed as soon as possible
from proximity to the COWS. Further
more the milk should be aerated
while still warm by pouring from
height from one pail into another.
If the odor of garlic still clings to it,
the milk must be heated for 10 or ID
minutes to 155 degrees Fahrenheit.
This is a very ticklish process. Moth
ing short of 155 degrees F. will drive
on the odor, yet anything much
above that temperature will give the
equally Objectionable taste Of boiled
milk. A good dairy thermometer
must be used. The safest way is to
place the milk in a deep open can