Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1903-08-26
DESTRUCTION OF WEEDS.
II is Best to Clean Them Out Early
Spring.

There is no time of the year when
weeds can be so successfully com
bated as early in the spring, and
they also infict greater damage at
that period than at any other time,
as the crops are gotten in as o o as
the frost leaves, the weeds crowding
the desirable plants out just when the
farmer is exceeding busy. Prof.
Shaw. who has given weeds his atten-
ton for several years, affirms that even
the Canada thistle a be cleaned out
of a field by %judicious rotation of crops.
The most persistent of weeds are
thistles, daisies, pigeon weeds, bur-
dock, couch grass, wild flax, ragweeds
and purslaine, each kind appearing
according to the season and the soil.
The growing of crops requiring hoe
cultivation is the cheapest mode of
getting rid of weeds. Most farmers
object to being compelled to use the
hoe. the cultivator can not destroy
weeds growing between plants in the
rows unless grown under the check
row system, which compels the utiliza-
ton of too much room for some crops,
the hoe being indispensable if the
weeds are to be kept out.
No field can be rendered absolutely
free from weeds, as seeds are blown
upon the farm from outside sources, or
brought thereon in some other manner,
but me farm can be made clean and a.
free from weeds as possible by hoed
crops, if such crops are grown on the
land for two or three years in success
sion. Corn. potatoes. turnips. beets,
carrots and cabbage provide a varie-
ty for rotation. The labor of hoeing
a crop is a large item of expense. but
it is hut a small sum compared with
the annual cost of destroying weeds,
which are renewed every year because
the land has not been thoroughly
cleaned of the pests, and as long as the
farmer refuses to resort to heroic
measures for exterminating weeds he
will always have them in his way. and
especially at a period of the year when
he can least afford to devote labor in
that direction, to say nothing of the
smaller yield of crops due to the pres
ence of weeds.
he most effective work on weeds
is when they are just appearing, as "a
narrowing or a simple scratching of
the soil may destroy them. Every
weed that gets a start not only takes
| plant food and moisture from the crop,
but is more difficult to eradicate. The
hoe need not be used frequently if the
small an the top soil kept loose.
Immediately after a shower is when
the weeds start, and it is then that the
harrow or wheel hoe should go into
the field. If the weeds made too much
growth the c%ultivator may be required.
thus compelling the farmer to Guilt
vate deeper than he may desire. If
the top soil is kept in a loose condi-
ton the weeds will not be so numer-
Gus, but it may be to the advantage CT
the farmer to induce the seeds of
weeds to terminate by allowing a day
= 49, -. - -. ,..~ nnI {LA~
destroy them. The object should be
to allow no weed to get a start and to
keep in view the fact that if no more
weed seeds are permitted to fall on
the ground there will be fewer weeds
each succeeding year. Once get the
weeds down and the cost of keeping
them off the fields will be but a COM
paratively small sum.