The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-03-12

0 20 ufsfs toh AsE me te
write short nete with regard 10 my
Experiences with kinghead II began
sometime In the '70's on the hilisider
Hof southern Indiana, and upon The
bottoms of the Ohio river. the fats
OF Hogen creek and Miami river
There we boys learned to call the weed
horse weed, and remember plants OF
them on the creek banks and in the
Mats of the smaller streams along the
edges of corn fields, which were uuf
Il hciently large to allow me at the age
lof or 10 years. to climb several
branches from the ground without
breaking them over. This sounds al
though the weeds grew quite rank I'm
places. This is one of my chief az
periences with kinghead, namely, that
II is rank grower. Some people cali
! II greater rHgweed Others In the
northwestern states call II kinshead
because 1t produced a seed with a
nve-point crown and a central point.
crown.
/ In the flats Of the Ohio river the
weed gave trouble under corn culti-
walton but ordinarily at that time I
do not believe people considered IL a
very troublesome weed In that particu-
lar region. It was called horse weed
because that animal seemed to enjoy
eating IL when In young and succulent
form. In the northwest among the
wheat growers 1t has become a real
pest because of the large areas the
seed drifted by the wind, fioated by the
water and in the fertile soils, specially
of the Red river valley, 1t makes a
very rank growth. crowdlng out the
grain and making an expensive pro-
cess of cutting because of the difficulty
In binding the grain and the extra
draft on the machine.
Why IL Spreads.
The weed would not have spread
so readily over so large areas as it
now occupies had it not been for the
fact that up to date there has been
no tanning mill or other grading ap-
paratus which would satisfactorily re-
move the seeds from wheat Only the
light ones blow over and the heavy
ones, clog up the screens because of
.their peculiar shape and point and
gradually sift over into the clean
grain.
there is not only a GurvivaI of the
fittest among the heavy weight grain
but also In the case of the kinghesd.
When the seeds are present in large
Quantities in the tEreshed grain ele-
vator men cut the Crade because the
-four mills have much the Same diff
Guilty experienced by the seedsmen in
removing the kinghead, and, when
ground, the shucks and other parts
are injurious to the -four
The scientific name of the weed is
Ambrosia trifida. 1t is an annual
living only one year from the seed. 1t
infests the heavy lands on the border
Of streams in any region where heavy
rains cause surface flooding. This is
because the seeds have specially con-
structed air chambers formed by the
surrounding seed coat and the king
points or crown. They are thus dis
tributed over such poorly drained
lands. These seeds. when buried deep
ly in wet land, finally decay, but I'M
der reasonable soil conditions they
maintain their viability for a full sea-
son or more. The weeds sprout up
from the seed at depths or four to-
six inches. The sturdy stems of these
weeds, when immature, send out
young plants from the points when
buried by the pillow. giving It - more
tenacious hold on the land than most
ANIMALS. Cut parts often take root,
forming new plants.
Cultivation.
Because of the above features II Is
important that arrangements should
be made to prevent surface flooding
of the land Cultivation, to cause
seed termination, should be conducted
with disc or sprint tooth harrow or |
other tool which will give the re-
quired depth of stirring The sulti- |
walton to be effective. as In the easel
of mustard, should precede cropping |
sufficiently to allow the seeds to germ
mate and be killed b. a subsequent |
upon summer fallow, 1t will lei
pletely under or to pull them and col |
lect them by hand or some sort OF
tool so that they may be thrown to-
gether and destroyed. Otherwise they
will re-root in a wet time.
Eradication by Spraying.
The stalk of these weeds soon be-
comes very sturdy especially IL the
atmosphere is dry and affords slow
growing period. Under this condition
will only kill the tops and
destroy the leaves 1t is therefore,
that fields containing
these weeds be sprayed at a time
when these weeds are very rapidly
growing and quite soft in all their
parts. The grain win usually be.
about eight to ten inches high and
he weeds ti1st rfceIy reaching Aha +op