The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-06-13
SHEPHERD TALKS
OF DANDELION
WELL KNOWN DEAN OF A. C.
GIVES SOME VERY PRACTICAL
SUGGESTIONS REGARDING THE
PEST - MUNICIPALITY SHOULD
CARE FOR VACANT LOTS.

To The Forum: Your editorial in
vites suggestions relative to the dande
lion pest which infests the cities Of the
northwest. 1t is serious menace and
there is so far no remedy that will
exterminate them. The iron sulphate
treatment kills down the leaves to the
crown, but the plant sends up new
shoots promptly and the job must be
repeated until the plant is finally worn
out, !. e., smothered. The treatment
kills out the white clover, leaves the
grass black streaked and bad looking,
is hard on the shoes and clothing that
it comes in contact with, which facts
prevent it's use on lawns generally. 1t
would seem to me that city or a viii
lage might well afford to spray vacant
lots, road and street sides as a civic
Improvement means Of preventing the
ripening of the dandelion seed which
blows over property in general.
At the present time most city resi-
dents hesitate to dig and otherwise
combat these pests when a veritable
snow storm of white down, each carry.
ing seed, is carried to their lots by
every breeze that blows. These waste
land dandelions the municipality might
well afford to take care of in a whole
sale way by the spraying method
Many people have dandelions much
worse than it is necessary to do by
not providing a good, rich, black sur
face layer of dirt when they grade the
lot and prepare to start lawn. The
way to get grass instead Of weeds is
to have rich dirt, good lawn seed-blue
grass or blue grass and white clover
prefer the blue grass clover mixture
and put in a lot of seed.
Seed it without nurse crop. Many
people SOW oats, barley or millet seed
with it as nurse crop. That is mis-
take. Such crops simply crowd and
rob it, die when frost appears and leave
openings for weeds to grow in when
spring comes.
Whenever you see a thin place in
your lawn, sow some grass seed in it
whether your lawn is old or new. Keep
it moist by frequent sprinkling and in
dry times like this watch it closely and
be sure to spray it enough-it will re-
quire large amount of water.
Lawns should be MANFRED every Sec
ond or third year to make them thick
and Of good color. Strange to say, this
will keep the dandelion from crowding
in so strong. 1t will keep the space
occupied by grass and the dandelion
seeds do not have the chance to get
hold that they would otherwise do
A piece of grass land at the college
was seeded ten years ago, and six years
ago as an experiment we began apply
ing well rotted stable manure annually
to half of it and nothing to the other
half The unmanured end is yellow
with dandelions while the MANFRED
piece has only scattering ones
through it.
Dandelions and other weeds stand
poor conditions better than blue grass
and clover, and the latter is helped
more by liberal supply of manure
and of water than the dandelions. /
would suggest that cities keep down
the dandelions on vacant property and
along the street sides. by frequent NOW
ing, or still better, by spraying with
iron sulphate. This could, 1t seems to
me, be done by the street commissioner.
Then if the residents will give the
grass chance by using well rotted
stable manure on it and watering il
thoroughly and regularly, the condition
will be greatly improved. The practice
of digging all that show blossoms each
day will keep them down reasonably
well and will prevent seed from ripen-
ing on the lawn.
J. H. Shepherd.