Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-03-30

ton of utilizing the plant food and
moisture to the extent Of driving out
other plants that try to-. grow with
them.
Legislation Needed.
There is no, question but that it
will take legislation to handle the SOW
thistle situation in this country, the
same as it is being handled in Can
ada In the province Of Manitoba
alone last year, they had v fifty
automobiles in use by the weed COM
mission. inspecting fields to see that
no thistles were allowed to so to seed.
denim any field that had SOW thistle
going to seed in it. and it was moved
down and burned. Individual farm
ers of course might object to this to
a certain extent. but it is necessary to
treat this situation drastically.
This is a personal question with
every farmer, and he should be made
responsible by law for weeds growing
on his premises, to the extent of at
least not allowing them to spread to
neighboring farms. If everyone real
lied the full importance of this mem
ace to the northwest, legislation would
not he necessary.
However. in many cases where land
is owned by non-residents who do not
give this matter proper attention.
there should be ways provided for
taking care of these weeds.
Eradication of the Sow Thistle. T
The SOW thistle and other noxious
weeds will not be eradicated until the
farmers of the infested districts are
educated to the importance of getting
rid of. these weeds, and realize that
the only way to do it is to get con-
certed action. \
In districts which are already badly
infested, complete eradication would
be almost impossible because the ex-
pense would be so great that farmers
would not be able to stand it. In
such areas the weeds must be con-
trolled. That is. they must not be
allowed to spread any further, and
not allowed to seed, and in. this way
they can be held in check and gradu-
ally subdued. =
To do this, methods of cultivation
and rotation of crops must be adopted
which will enable the farmer to kill
out many of the weeds and lessen the
injury done by those which were left.
Land which is badly infested may be
pastured with cattle or other stock,
to good advantage, and some returns
received from the weeds, while other
areas are being cultivated and cleaned
up. -4
Before the sow thistle, or any other
weeds. can be successfully eradicated,
the nature of the weeds must be
studied" 3 =
The sow thistle has two ways of
perpetuating itself. first by seed.
which, because they are provided with
wings, may be blown by the wind for
miles. The other way is by root
stocks which grow out from the plants
already established, and which form
many other plants around the first
one. ~
To prevent the spreading by seed it
will be necessary to keep the weeds
cut down SO they do not form seed.
This will G also that in sowing
the farm seeds, great care must be
taken that they do not contain seed
OF the SOW thistle, or any other noxi-
Gus weeds.
The eradication of the roots OF the
SOW thistle may be accomplished in
several ways. One method is to
weaken the sow thistle and SOW some
other crop that will crowd out the
SOW thistle. Bronze grass is capable
OF doing this under certain conditions,
and also alfalfa and sweet clover may
be used with success in some local.
ties. However, In most cases the SOW
thistle will doubtless proys to be the
most persistent grower and crowd out
the cropsEthat are soWn. with them.
Small patches OF SOW thtstle ard
other weeds may be sSnotherod out by
covering withatar paper, manure or
straw. or by sOWingaa quick growing
jcrop,S after the weeds have been ret