219 



Quack Grass can be destroyed in one season by constant hoeing. This was on light 

 sandy soil. A practice frequently recommended at farmers' institutes is the 

 following, which although I have never tried it would to my mind certainly succeed : 

 Plough lightly about 4 inches deep in autumn, and cross-plough in spi'ing. In June 

 sow with buckwheat and plough this under as green manure as soon as it is in flower ; 

 then sow again the same crop and plough it in. Follow the next year with a hoed 

 crop. In the North-West Tei-ritories and Manitoba is a western variety of this pest 

 which is called Colorado Blue-stem, (Agropyrum glaucum R. & S, var occidentale V. 

 & S.) In low land this will doubtless be found troublesome and give the farmer 

 some trouble, but it is also probably the most valuable fodder grass which grows on 

 our western cattle ranches. 



Wild Oats [Avena fatua). 



This is an annual grass and is propagated entirely from seed. The seeds are 

 said to have great vitality, and to lie dormant in the soil for many years if they be 

 buried too deep to germinate. Any meihod adopted to clean land of this pest must 

 ensure that no seeds are allowed to ripen. Sowing fall rye as a soiling crop, and 

 following with a crop of buckwheat to be ploughed in, and then following the next 

 season with a hoed crop, may be suggested. This plant has been sent to me but veiy 

 seldom, and it is not found, as far as I know, in this part of Canada, Mr, A. M. 

 Kiunear, of Paris, Ont., wrote to me, however, Sept. 3 : " I am interested in a fai m in 

 the township of Dunn, county of Haldimand. The farm has but lately come into 

 my hands, and I find it has been allowed to run into a very dirty condition with 

 various kinds of weeds, one of the fields particularly being infested with a plant 

 known in the locality as "wild oats." In October, specimens of the seed wei-e sent 

 to me, and proved to be, as stated, the Wild Oat (Avena fatua.') The seed of this weed 

 may be known by its brown husks, bristly at the base and the long twisted arm. When 

 growing. Wild Oats closely resemble cultivated oats, but the panicle is larger and more 

 spreading. The long awn when dry is much twisted, and when damp it uncoils 

 quickly; for this reason, the name Animated Oats has been given to the seed. Sir 

 William Hooker says: "The use of the Wild Oat, with its brown hairy seed and 

 twisted awn, as an artificial fly is well known ; the uncoiling of the awn when wetted 

 causing those contortions by which it imitates a fly in trouble. It is of common use 

 with rustic fishermen." 



, Chess [Bromus secalinus.) 



I have many letters and enquiries from farmers with reffard to the very remark- 

 able but utterly mistaken idea that wheat can by any possibility change to Chess. 

 This is quite impossible and the strafige thing to me is that some of these farmers 

 have not proved it for themselves, by trying to produce Chess experimentally from 

 wheat by some of the causes which it is alleged will do so. A. A. Crozier in his 

 charming little book " Errors about Plants " says on this subject : " No populai- error 

 has been more generally held in this country than that wheat will turn to Chess ; 

 there are signs, however, that interest in the question is dying out, which probably 

 means thf^t the better educated farmers have ceased to believe in the transmutation 

 theory. None of the leading agricultural periodicals now advocate this theory and 

 some of ihem decline to discuss it any longer. Nevertheless, the subject is by no 

 means out of date," " The causes assigned for the alleged transmutation of wheat to 

 Ches.^ are numerous and varied: sowing shrunken seed; sowing in a certain time 

 of the moon; injury by Hessian fly; eating off of the plants by stock or by fowls; 

 trampling by animals, or injury bypassing vehicles; drowning or freezing out 

 during winter; cutting off" the "tap" root in imitation of heaving during winter." 



In this country Chess is generally supposed 1o grow only from fall wheat; but 

 occasionally this ftuth is shaken by plants being found amongbt spring wheat, oats 

 and '^ther crops. Many claim that although Chess seed will grow it will not repro- 

 duce itself. Upon informing one of my correspondents that a lady acquaintance had 



