The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1922-09-01
Wheat On
Quack Land
Now Is Time To Begin Killing Quacl

(By ]. G. Haney, Agricultural De-
partment, International Harvester
Company.
Better than % bushels to the acre
OF No. / wheat, weighing over 81
pounds to the bushel, is not SO bad
On land that for several years had
previously grown nothing but quack
grass. On 40 acres Of land belong
ing to the North Dakota State Uni
versity, almost adjoining our farm,
for the past two years we have been
working on this, and will tell how we
!. did it. $.
This .4O-acre piece had been rented
to outsiders since our farm was es-
tablished and the land three yekrs
has been practically abandoned. . on
account of quack grass. Ten years
ago this was as clean and nice a field
as there was in the neighborhood.
We arranged with the University
to take this over and see what could
be done in the way of cleaning it up.
We tried out various ways, all of
which indicate that it is merely mat
ter of work, and this quack grass can
be overcome. The best results were
secured by waiting until the quack
grass had headed out and theh using
the mower to cut this off and remove
the hay. The hay was fed to the cat
tie on part Of the pasture which
we did not expect to ever plow up.
The land was then plowed as shallow
as possible and do a gbod job, and
left until the sod had dried out. This
sod was so full Of roots that we
could not use the field cultivator,
with spring tooth quack points until
we had disced it a time or two to
break up the sod. We then weht
over it several times with the spring
tooth field cultivator. This worked
the roots out of the sod and brought
them to the surface. AS soon as they
were so thick on the surface that
they would clog up the cu'tivator,
we used a side delivery rake to throw
the roots into windows, and then
burned them. We then used the
spring tooth another time or two,
and a second crop Of roots was rak-
ed and burned.
This freed the ground of roots to
/. such an extent that we could put
the shovels on the spring tooth, which
cut off many of the roots left stick
ing in the ground. If this ground
had been comparatively level it would
have been an easier matter to have
gotten the roots out, but as it had
been plowed several times after the
sod got quite heavy, the ground was
SO rough that in places the sod was
very thick and in other places very
thin, so it was almost impossible to
get all the roots out.
The first work was done in the fall
of 1920, and the spring of 1921 we
worked it again with the spring tooth
cultivator and seeded it to oats and
nillet, using about 20 pounds of mil
let to bushel of oats. We got a
good crop Of hay. Just as soon as
this was ready to cut it was taken
off and the ground shallow plowed
again in the fall Of 1920. There
were very few quack roots in this
and it was not necessary to rake
them up after we had used the field
cultivator, as they did not interfere
with working the land. We worked
this just as late as we could in the
fall, and left as many of the roots
as possible on top.
Last spring, as soon as the Lam!
was dry enough, we went over it
again with the field cultivator, using
the shovels on the spring teeth, as
there were some roots which were
fast at one end, while one end stuck
out of the ground. This made an
excellent chance for the quack to
start again. This land was culti-
waited Immediately ahead Of the drill
and both Marquis and Durun wheat
tried on it. The work done put this
quack grass back to such an extent
that it made only a very weak, small
growth during the summer. It is,
however, not entirely killed out and
in order to prevent it starting again
this land will be fall plowed, shallow,
and worked the same as it was last
year. There will, however, be no
roots to be raked up,, as the quack
was slow in starting and the grain
prevented it from growing UNDER
ground stems or roots to any extent.
It is probable that we could have
sown early oats or even barley on
, this land last year, instead of the
millet and oats and had practically
the same results.
AS to how many times we worked
this field, in order to secure these
results, is rather hard to determine,
as some spots where the quack was
heavy took more work than where
it had apparently not sodded so
heavily. The point is we worked the
roots out of the ground, and got it
free of roots so that the cultivator
with shovels could be used. Also af-
ter we started working it in the fall
we did not allow it to remain long
enough for the roots to make any