The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1909-09-02
The Independent Farmer
DEPARTMENT DEVOTED OF THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE
MOST IMPORTANT INDUSTRY OF THE NORTHWEST
Late Summer Control of Weeds

Late Summer Control of Weeds
A. College, N. D. H. J. Hughes, Re
porter.
The editor of the Jamestown Alert
recently inquired of the Agricultural
College as to what could be done late
in THE season toward the control of
weeds that had already seeded, or
would do so before blowing could
begin In the fall. This is a matter of
such wide state interest THAT we take
pleasure in giving to our readers THE
following answer to the question, pre-
pared by Mr.. Hughes, reporter at the
A. C.
The Capital says: There are but
few weeds, comparatively speaking.
that really menace the farmer, and
those few fortunately may be control
led by the man who understands their
habits of growth, and lis prepared ito
take them at a disadvantage.
Among those which are giving the
farmers the largest amount of trouble
are the thistles, especial the Canada
and SOW thistles. The latter is a new
conner to the state. Mustard, king
head, cockle, and perhaps few others
fairly round out the list of weeds
that seriously Interfere with grain
growing.
There are three main ways ito at
tack weed Cd deprive it of a chance
to develop, by keeping it cut down.
That rids the land of the weed as
fast as the seeds already sown in the
ground sprout This is che method we
adopt i'm the growing of corn, and
is one of the best for the purpose of
cleaning the land.
Under this head comes the spray
ing work that has proven successful
where properly carried out. To get
results from spraying the work must
be done while the plant is small, and
still i'm the big leaf. Otherwise the
Vitality of the root and stem will
enable the plant to 80 ON and ma
ture seed. Spraying after the pod is
formed is a sheer waste of time, mon
ey, and possibly of the crop in whic
the spraying done. Applied while the
| plant is small chemical sprays are
effective for mustard and kinghead lin
particular. Any plant THAT has fuz-
zy leaf, which win hold the solution
as tho it were dew, spraying may be
expected to give good results. At this
season of the year it has no value.
The second way to attack weeds IS
to starve the roots. This is done in
the case of such plants as the canada
thistle, and thoroly carried out will
re- ult in the destruction of the plant
There are few weeds SO vigorous that
they can survive whole season OF
starvation. The trouble with this
plant is getting very tired and will
ing to quit.
The third method of weed control
is to combine these two as far as
possible, and add to them the de-
struction of the seed already in the
ground. This is the work best &C
complished by early fall blowing, fol-
lowed by narrowing or rolling of the
ground, so that the seeds will come
up. Late fall plowing has little val
ue in this way, as the season is toe
AR advanced and the weed seed lie
dormant over winter. EARLY fall plow-
ing, followed by the packing and
smoothing of the ground in order to
encourage the seed to sprout, and
care that no seed ripened before frost
helps very greatly toward clean
fields.