The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-06-23
Fighting Weeds-Five Suggestions
Progressive Farmer.)

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weed it is only necessary to prevent
them from making seed to eradicate
them. Of course, if the land is well
seeded some plants may continue tc
grow from late terminating seed
but if they are kept from seeding,
either by moving or by cultivation,
they will soon be eradicated.
?. When Johnson grass and Ber-
muda have been left undisturbed in
the soil for two or three years, pas,
tured OF moved for hay, the under
ground stems or root-stocks all deve,
lop near the surface and if it is de-
sired to destroy them the land should
be plowed shallow and these stems
exposed to the sun by narrowing
them out on the surface.
3. The cultivation of row crops,
like corr and cotton, tends to keep
down and eradicate weeds while the
cultivation is kept up. In fact, the
growing of such crops is usually men,
toned by writers on weed destruc-
ton as one of the methods of eradi-
eating weeds; but in the South, where
the cultivation stops so early in the
season, the corn fields are veritable
weed-breeding areas. When cow
peas are sown broadcast or the cult
walton of late corn is continued until
late in the season, this tendency of
weeds to grow in the corn fields is
materially reduced, but as a rule the
cultivation of corr is anything but a
means of e~radicating@ weeds in the
South.
4. If our crops wer such as are
sown broadcast then the weed prob
lem would mean less to the South
but with crops planted in rows wide
apart the expense of keeping down
weeds is a tremendous tax on South
ern agriculture. And yet there is
probably no place where less atten-
ton has been given to the prevention
of the spread of weeds pests. Little
has been done towards preventing
the introduction of weeds through
adulterated and contaminated seeds
for planting, and almost nothing to-
wards keeping down weeds along
roadways and on other uncultivated
or unused lands. This is a problem
needing attention in the South, right
now.
5. We know of no better illus
tration of the necessity and value of
studying the habits of growth of any
weed that is to be eradicated than is
given by the case of the wild onion.
This weed was found to make both
hard and soft underground bulbs.
The large, soft-shelled bulbs produc-
ed in the spring, for instance, gener-
ally sprout, grow and produce new
bulbs in the fall; while the hard
shelled bulbs produced in the spring
are not likely to sprout until the next
spring. 1t is thus apparent that
there is an overlapping of the gener-
ations of growing plants from the
soft and hard-shelled bulbs. But if
the land is plowed in the fall after
the soft-shelled spring bulbs have
sprouted and made considerable
growth, but before the new bulbs are
matured, and then plowed in the
spring at the same period of growth
of the plants from the hard-shelled
bulbs, practically all bulbs will have
terminated and been killed and no
new bulbs will have been formed.
The same results may be obtained by
fall blowing. at the right time, to be
determined hy an examination of the
growing bulbs. and then the cultiva-
ton of q beed crop the following
spring, provided the cultivation is
sufficiently thorough to keep down all
growth Of the onions.