The Bismarck tribune., 1929-03-28
wild OATS PROBLEM
IS PARTLY SOLVED
/ BY LISTING OF corn
Summer FalIowing Is Another
Way Of Keeping Pest
Under Control
STATION REPORTS TESTS
9. n. Plath Finds Lighter Soil
y and Shallow Cultivation
Best on Corn
By RAY w. HARDING

By RAY w. HARDING
Nine farm conferences were held
In Adams county the week Of March
10 at which 1872 farmers attended
and began q systematic study OF their
!. most important problems and the So
buttons Of them.
Believing that summary Of their
experiences during the last 20 years
would establish the most important
problems and point to their solution.
these farmers gathered in their diff
ferent communities to discuss their
experiences.
Il Is realized by farmers In SOUTH
western North Dakota that the diff
Ctllties encountered in agriculture
/ here are different than In other sec
tions Of the state or other states due
to the fact that we have different
soil, seasons and amount Of rainfall.
This makes US grow different crops
and handle them differently than In
other sections. Therefore. most Of
the methods and practices used In
other places cannot be applied to this
\ section. -
wild Oats
At all Of these meetings the con-
trol Of Wild oats seemed to be the
chief source Of trouble. One conclu-
sion based on farmers experiences Is
that Wild oats will live in the ground
almost indefinitely and grow when
they are turned up to the surface. A
rather common experience was to
disc 4 badly infested field early In the
spring to start the weeds then plow
&C late In June or early In July, turn
i jng under the green crop.
- Almost every man trying this re-
ported that the next spring he had as
many wild oats as ever. The only
answer to this seemed to be that
while one crop was killed another was
turned up ready to grow the follow
ing spring.
These experiences indicate that
some other method must be used. Two
systems OF controlling wild oats that
have been tried out with good results
; by some Of our farmers are summer
. fillaee and listing corn. In summer
ttlling, the land may be plowed early
In the spring or gone over with =
duckfoot cultivator and then kept
clean Of weeds the rest Of the sum-
mar. Il does not seem necessary to
ploY the land at all. The important
paint as shown by experience Is to
keep the weeds killed which serves
moisture and the available plant
food. 1t being far better to keep the
weeds down from early spring rather
] than let them get q start and be
plowed under. This method will
necessitate one cultivation early In
the spring.
IN some cases It has been possible
% keep the weeds down by going over
the field three times with duckfoot
cultivator while In other cases 1t re-
Quired four civilizations. Whether or
not tho land was plowed as the first
!, ,Anltivation seems to make very little
difference. In fact some Of the ex-
befiences showed that plowless tillage
9ave better results, probably because
I % leaves the stubble on top which
he1ps to prevent blowing.
s Listing corn while still quite new
81 this region promises to be an eff
kient method Of controlling wild oats
especially on lighter soil.
Adams county farmers all agreed
that to keep wild oats out Of surface
planted corn Is almost an impossible
q ta1t, while . listed field can be kept
cleaner with considerable less work.
Some question exists as to the
yields that can be obtained by the
two methods as the farmers expert
1nsces vary considerably. This prob
lem Will be worked out In the next
two or three years by the farmers
and our experiment station at Het-
! tinter.
At slmilar conferences held last
spring the subject Of listed corn came
" generally for discussion. AS re-
Dult G. H. Plath, superintendent Of
stao experiment station, began q
i saof1es Of trials to determine the type
soil and depth Of planting most
! suitable to listing. While these trials
Aave been carried on only one year,
~ results showed that listed corn on
1ohter soil gave better yields than
sntaco planting and was kept free 81
Noo6g much easier. The results on
~ 0epth trials allowed that shallow
Il 6Gting gave better returns.
Rasturs Crsps
Another important problem Is pas
b cfops. All our farmers agree
J 1nt nntive pasture Il too expensive
- soene other crop must b used,