The Dickinson press., 1906-12-29
QUACk GRASS,
Sow Thistle and Canada
Thistle.
BY H. L. ROLLEY.

There are many types of weeds, es-
pecially the annual ones that develop
large quantities of seed. These weeds
speedily overrun large areas of farming
country after the native sod is broken up,
unless the farmers are careful in clean.
ing the seed which they sow. Among,
this type of plants are common mustard,
Russian thistle, pigeon grass, pig-weed,
etc. Such weeds soon become SO gener-
al in the farming area where large field
methods are practiced that the agricul.
tural methods must be largely varied and
the farmers soon, simply learn to live
with the weeds, using those methods OF
cultivation which so check the growth OF
the weeds that the farm crops keep the
upperhand and make reasonable devel-
opment. When farming is reduced to
smaller fields and proper series of crop
rotation, these types of weeds have slight
power to do harm.
This is not, however, true of some
other weed pests. There are certain
types of noxious weeds, as for example
quack grass, sow thistle, and Canada
thistle which, when they once gain pos
session of piece of ground, can never
be gotten rid of except by methods in
volving much cost. In many cases the
cost will exceed the value of the land,
therefore, farming state which does
not naturally have these pests as native
plants should make every effort to pre-
vent such weeds from becoming general
ly distributed.
Quack grass, sow thistle and Canada
thistle are three types of weeds which
are we'll known to the agriculture of GER
tain of the older portions of the United
States. Any of our older people, who re-
member being told that they could not
20 fishing until they had destroyed all
the Canada thistle or punches of quack
grass on certain small plots of ground,
will have due appreciation of what it
will mean to the Red River Valley and
the rest of North Dakota when these two
weed pests have once attained thoro
foothold on all of the farms of this Valley.
Some of the farmers of Pembina and
Walsh counties already know what the
Canada thistle and sow thistle can do
and these weeds have been at work but a
few years in these regions. The SOW
thistle is weed rather new to the agri.
culture of this state, but it is showing
capabilities of crop destruction which fal
exceed that of anysother weed known to
agriculture. Its method of growth are
similar 10 tuOSc VI tllc NdlldOd tlIISIlC, Oul
it has proved very mush fercer ground
occupier. Indeed, where present in as
sociation with the; Canada thistle, it ha:
been found able to prevent the growth o.
wheat and even crowd out the Canada
thistle.
Quack grass, Canada thistle and SOW
thistle all use one growth characteristic
which allows them to persistently hole
the soil against other plants: Each no
only produces seed in profusion', but de-
velops heavy, underground, jointM stems
with buds at every node. These heav!
underground stems, called roct-stock i
cut off from the rest of the plant. nev
plants sprout up from the bucs or joint
just as potato sprouts arise fro1p the eye
of the cut pieces of tuber. Tits featur
allows the plant to thrive besl under OF
dinary methods of farm cropping. Th!
plows, harrows and drills siIhply breal
up the jointed root-stocks or underground
stems and scatter them abotk oveFth'
field. rapidly spreading the weeds t