The Oakes times. [volume] (Oakes, N.D.) 1906-current, 1907-01-10
.NOXIOUS WEEDS
MUST BE KILLED
Among the Worst Are the Quack
Grass. Sow and Canada
Thistles.
The Tim. To Kill Them OF I. in Their lncip
iency- interesting Article by Prof. Il. L.
Bolley Of the Agricultural College.

There are many types of weeds,
especially 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
cleaning the seed which they SOW.
Among this type Of plants are common
mustard, Russian thistle, pigeon grass,
pig weed, etc. Such weeds soon be-
come SO general in the farming area
where large field methods are practiced
that the agricultural 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 a reasonable
development. 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
possession of a piece of ground,
can never be gotten rid of
except by methods involving
much cost. In many cases the cost
will exceed the value of the land,
therefore, a farming state which does
not naturally have these pests as
native plants should make every
effort to prevent. such weeds from
becoming generally distributed.
Quack grass, sow thistle and Canada
thistle are three types of weeds which
are we'll known to the agriculture of
certain of the older portions of the
United States. Any of our older
people, who remember being told that
they could not go fishing until they had
destroyed all the Canada thistle or
lunches 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 a thorough
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 the
sow thistle can do, and these Weeds
have been at work but few years in
these regions. The sow thistle is a
weed rather new to the agriculture of
this state, but it is showing ca liabilities
of crop destruction which far exceed
that of any other weed known to
agriculture. Its method of growth are
similar to those of the Canada thistle
but it has proved much fiercer ground
occupier. Indeed, where present in
association with the Canada thistle,
it has been found able to prevent the
growth of 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 hold
the soil against other plants. Each
not only produces seed in profusion,
but develops heavy. underground,
jointed stems with buds at every node.
These heavy underground stems,
called root-stocks, is cut off from the
rest of the plant, new plants sprout up
from the buds or joints just as potato
sprouts arise from the eyes Of the cut
pieces of tuber. This feature allows
the plant to thrive best under ordinary
methods of farm cropping. The plows,
harrows and drills simply break up the
jointed root-stocks or underground
stems and scatter them about over the
field, rapidly spreading the weeds to