Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1914-08-27
PEST OF FARMERS.
Methods Of Graduating Wild
Onions or Garlic.
Washington. d c.

can be eradicated by careful meth
DDS Of cultivation. according to Fer.
mers' Bulletin No. Go. OF the De
partment Of Agriculture, shortly tC
be issued. The wild onion is the
worst weed pest in a IarRe part OF
the territory in the Atlantic coast
region from Massachusetts, to Geor
gia, and as far inland as Miss uri
1t not only gives milk disagreeable
o Tor and flavor. but when the onion
bullets get in wheat they give the
flour made from it a pronounced
garlicky odor and taste.
HOW TO GET RID OF THE WILD ONION.
The measures recommended for
the eradication of the wild onion, or
garlic, pest are based en- the growing
habits of this plant. 1t ripens in
June or July, when it has a stem II
to 81 feet ia !. on the top of which
are found clusters of the aerial bulb
let's, incorrectly called seed. The
plant seldom produce true seed. 1t
multiplies by forming 2 to 6 new
bullets. which start to grow after
the leaves and stem die. These bulb
lets consist generally of large bulb
with a thin white skin and smaller
ones with s.haid. brown shell. The
soft shell bulb terminates in the
summer or early fall, and the hard
shell. bulbs do not start growth until
a considerably.!later date. A few
st TT in the late fall, but most of
them remain dormant until the fol-
lowing spring, or even later. Inas-
much as the plants from the soft
shelled bulbs advance far enough to
produce new bulbs before all the
hard shelled bulbs have terminated,
there is an overlapping of genera
tons, which is the secret OF the re-
nsrkable pre- sistence of this weed.
To kill the wild onion, the work
must be started in the fall to destroy
plants from the soft shelled bulbs
before they produce new bulbs.
The best time is when the new
plants are II to 10 inches high, or
luriI G October and November in
the South and November and De-
cember in the North. At this stage
the land should be plowed fairly
deep. turning under ell the onion-
tops. The tops should be complete
y buried by the blowing. and for |
this reason. a pillow with jointer at
.ached to the beam will often be a
great help. The following spring
he field should be planted in a Guilt
7ated crop in check rows being best.
AnothJr shallow blowing may be
in the spring, but ordi-
larily disking or two previous to
Dlsntir g Will suffice. In cultivating
he corn, the effort should be to kill |
The onion plants that spring up and
The easiest way to do this is to cut
off the tops. Cultivators of the
sweep type are the best. On many
II the modern cultivators, sweeps 8
10 is inches wide may be quickly at
-4ched in place of the shoyels. Some
lis, of course, are too stony or 9TH
erwise unsuitable FOR the use of
sweeps.
From the time the farmer is able
% get on the land in the spring UNI
il the corn is laid by, he should d.
'ect his efforts toward preventing
he onion from making top growth,
With the idea of killing the plants
hat comes up from the hardshell
Julbs. If this is well done, most of
he onions will disappear by the end |
# summer. Some of the hardshell |
)ulbs, however, may delay germina-
ion for year or two,s that by fall
few plants may again be in evil
ience. The farmer, therefore, should |
pc prepared to follow the same plan
# deep blowing late in the fall, sue
eeded by a carefully cultivated CROP
he next spring. In two years this
treatment is almost sure death to all
he wild onions in the land, and they
AN be carried out with but little ex-
ra labor and expense. The aerial
bulbs terminate in the early fall,
but the plants are weak and readily
destroyed by fall blowing. Many
farmers have tried the method out
ided here and have found it to be
entirely satisfactory.