Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1911-08-18
FIGHTING TIE QuAck GRASS.

good start in small grain fields ant
pastures, this late summer season i.
good time to make a new fight
agairst its spread. Quack grass
spreads less rapidly in pasture
crcp or an oats crop than it does in
corr. but It spreads in such fields
nevertheless and every possible effort
should be made to stamp it out.
Prof. L. H. Pammel, botanist Of thu
Iowa State College Experiment Sta
ton 1t Anna, makes the following
susgse1ons ~ the determination Of
this vaad Vast;
If the neld is sown with oats II
should be given shallov blowing as
soon as the crop is removed, and
narrowed at least once a week dur
ing the late summer and fall. This
will destroy much of the quack grass
by the end of the season. The field
can be put into corn the following
year.
If the quack grass has gotten a
start in the pasture. the method
followed in England by Prof. Spillman
may be adopted:
First, the sod is plowed, then it
is narrowed two or three times to
bring the quack grass root stocks to
the surface, then chain drag is run
over the land to roll the rootstocks
up, after which wagons with hay
frames are brought on and the roots
are removed by hand. Then the land
is plowed again and the same pro-
cess gone over with. After this has
been done from three to five times
the land is practically free from the
rootstocks, and the rotation can be
run through without serious trouble
from quack grass"
Mr.. J. S. Gates, of the office of
Farm Management, has made a care
full study of quack grass for some
years past, and has developed very
much simpler and less expensive
method than the above, a method,
however, which is not applicable to
all situations. Mr.. Gates method is
based on the following principles:
IF the quack grass sod be left
undisturbed, as would be the case In
a meadow OF pasture, for two years,
the grass meanwhile being cut for
hay or kept down by pasturing, all of
the deep lying rootstocks decay, and
the new ones that form are all within
two or two and a half inches Of the
surface. After this condition has been
brought about, if the field is plowed
just deep enough to turn up all of
the rootstocks, which will usually be
two to two and half inches, the
grass is very easy to kill. This
blowing should be done in midsum-
mer after haying time. A few har-
after this shallow blowing
completely destroys quack grass I'M
less It happens to be very wet sea-
son, when the roots are kept alive
by the moisture.
It is of the greatest Importance
not to plow deeper than necessary in
this work. If one plows, say four
inches deep, then the rootstocks must
be narrowed out from the depth or
they will take root and grow again.
If the blowing is only two inches
deep the frequent borrowings keep
the rootstocks from connecting with
the subsoil until they have complete
ly persisted.
We have found good many New
England farmers who had dropped
on to this method of killing guack
grass, and they no longer consider it
as serious menace"
Another method is to pillow the sod
at least six inches deep. Experience
has shown that quack grass roots do
not penetrate through the soil much
beyond depth of four or five inches.
very few going beyond six inches,
The following season sow with grain.
After the grain is removed pillow the
land and harrow in such way as to
get all the roots on the surface, and
repeat the disking and narrowing as
often as the grass occurs, once a
week If necessary.