Bryan morning eagle. [volume] (Bryan, Tex.) 1898-1909, 1907-10-06


tiers in regard TO my article in
The News IN regard TO 10 the fail.
ure TO cxtcrminatc the boil weeyil,
cotton worm and green bug. | am
amused as well Us surprised at the
johnson grass article in The News
OF April seventeenth, wherein SUI
periluous phrases, such as pri-
superfluous phrases, such as pri-
mary, secondary, Tertiary, joints,
root, stalks. etc, are so freely used
IN what Is termed experimental
work. About a ton of root stalks
per acre were taken from the land,
which is equivalent 10 removing a
ton of good fertilizer per acre. with
out facilitating the work one par.
ticlc. Twenty-scyen years ago. be-
fore thu name johnson grass had
been applied To this pest Tor bless
ing If YOU like), ! procured some
seed from Fresno, Cal, paving 81
per pound, under the name Of ever
green mlllet. and ! still have il. and
hope to always have a supply of it.
In moving from Dcni,on. Texas, 10
Eastland County. Texas, IN 1883, !
dug up and brought a lot OF the
roots along and planted them m
Young orchard. where they flour
ished and remained throughout the
hfe OF the peach ami plum trees,
pear trcc--and johnson grass still
There always liked it. because !
could always cat nice. big thrifty
punches Of the gras. for my horses
before there was oth'r pasture, and
they sure enjoyed u, and whenever
il soi a little ob,trcpcrou, | put a
wide shallow sweep into it in hot,
dry weather and only had 10 watch
my men 10 keep them from killing
j. out 50 there would not be- enough
for start
In 1893 had a piece Of heavy
mesquite soil 80 well set with II that
in many places the roots hcard
great patches Of the surface two
or three inches above the general
level, in other places II was scatter
ing. | moved il oil and put d
sweep into II, when dry and hot in
August never used root hooks To-
remove the tertiary or my other
form of roots. but used a lot Of good
old sound horse sense. worked II
over regularly, once 4 week for sew
times. never lct 1t get two inches
high, and By the next year the roots
were an rottcd aud mixed with the
soil. and never saw land IN finer
shape or more free from Johnson
grass roots. but millions of seed
came mp. which Of course was treat
Ell a. their parent, had been.
have had johnson grass on all
kinds of soil, IN orchards, garden
and open fields, and under my
treatment II never approached b,
ing nuisance. In 1884 a neigh
boz had one little bunch in a fine
valley field. tried 10 get him 10.
eradicate 1t. which he seemed cx.
ircmcly anxious TO do. but his treat
mcnt was just like treating bad
cancer. the more he doctored II the
worse II got. and It was but few
years before it was master of the
situation
We have long since passed the cX-
pcrimcntal stage Of killing johnson
gra,, by constant blowing IN ho,
weather. but like the eradication of
The boll wccvil, green bug, etc, by
salary, when all the experimental
work is done and appropriations cX-
haustcd, the pests will still abide
with as. from the one fact alone. 4
no other. not more than one farmer
in one hundred who makes the at
tempt to Kill johnson grass will
STAY by close enough 10 do any
good. They are nearly all like one
fellow ! once persuaded TO try this
method. Three months later | saw
him and in reply To my inquiry
SAID, II plowcd the stuff twice and
the next time | went 90 the field |
found It pccplng up 90 sce # was
coming. and | just told il TO 20 To
Hadcs, but it didn't 20. and Is as
Thick a ever" This Is just about
the way most efforts mot expert
mcnls) result. For twenty year,
talked. wrote and read johnson