Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1914-09-02
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sSs HOW TO ERADICATE i.
j. THE WILD ONION. !.
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The wild onion, or garlic, which
causes an annual money loss to farm
ers of millions of dollars a year can
be eradicated by careful methods of
according to farmers bull
letin No 610, of the Department of
Agriculture, shortly to be issued. The
wild onion is the worst weed pest in
a large part of the territory in the
Atlantic coast region from Massachu-
setts to Georgia, and as far inland as
Missouri. 1t not only gives milk
disagreeable odor and flavor, but
when the onion bulblets get in wheat
they give the -four made from it a
pronounced garlicky odor and taste.
On boards of trade wheat contain
ing garlic bulblets in considerable
quantity is graded rejected" and is
then sold only on sample. Such grain
is generally sold at price ranging
from 20 to SO per cent lower than
No. 2 red. Millers often refuse to
handle onion infested wheat, as the
bulblets gum the rollers and add
greatly to the cost Of grinding.
In the case of harvested wheat, the
bulblets become lighter and are more
easily famed out in from six months
to year after harvest. Where it is
not practicable to hold the crop that
long, the infested grain may be arti-
hcially dried in an ordinary grain
drier, after which the bulblets may
be readily removed in good cleaning
machinery.
The measures recommended for the
eradication of the wild onion, or gar
lie, pest are based on the growing
habits Of this plant. 1t ripens in
June or July, when it has a stem Il
to ~ feet tall on the top of which
are found clusters of the aerial bulb
lets, incorrectly called seeds. The
plant seldom produces true seeds. 1t
multiplies by forming two to six
new bulblets, which start to grow af-
ter the leaves and stem die. These
bulblets consist generally of a large
bulb with a thin white skin and
smaller ones with a hard, 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 start 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 shell
bulbs advance far enough to produce
new bulbs before all the hard shell
bulbs have terminated there is an
overlapping Of generations. which Is
the secret of the remarkable persist
ence of this weed
To kill the wild onion the work
must be started in the fall to destroy
the plants from the soft shell bulbs
before they produce new bulbs. The
best time is when the new plants are
2 to Is inches high, or during Octo-
Der and November in the South and
November and December in the
North. At this stage the land should
be plowed fairly deep, turning under
all the onion tops. The tops should
be completely buried by the plowing,
and for this reason, a plow with a
n tn 70 hN q
ten be great help. Disking the land
previous to plowing will also aid in
burying the tops. Tho following
spring the field should be planted in
a cultivated crop, corn in check rows
being best. Another shallow plowing
may be necessary in the spring, but
ordinarily disking or two previous
to planting will suffice. In cultivat-
ing the 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
of the modern cultivators, sweeps 9
to Is inches wide may be quickly at
tached in place Of the shovels. Some
soils, Of course, are too stony or
otherwise unsuitable for the use of
sweeps.
From the time the farmer Is able
to get on the land in the spring until
the corn is laid by, he should direct
his efforts towards preventing the
onion from making top growth, with
the idea OF killing the plants that
come up from the hard shell bulbs.
IF this is well done, most Of the on
ions will disappear by the end of the