THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 159 



COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' DEPARTMENT. 



THE WEEDS OF KERN COUNTY. 



By K. S. KxowLTox. Bukerstiehl, Oalifornia. 



The weed question was taken up in tliis county l).y the Horticultural 

 Commissioner a few years ago and since then he has been carrying on a 

 systematic campaign against some of the most troublesome weeds of the 

 county. The campaign has been carried out as an educational and 

 cooperative one, rather than as one forced upon the i)eoplc, and in this 

 way the cooperation and good will of the people has been secured. 



These weeds, which have ])een declared a public nuisance, detrimental 

 to the horticultural and agricultural interests of the county, are: Rus- 

 sian thistle {Salsola kali), grountl bur-nut (TrihitlKs ffrrestris), spiny 

 cockle-bur (Xanthmm spi}iosnm), and bur grass {Cenchrtifi Carolin- 

 ian us) . 



The county being naturally divided into districts by mountains, which 

 act as a barrier to the spread of the weed seeds, it was thought advisable 

 to take the question up a district at a time. In eacli district an inspector 

 was appointed who made a thorough canvass of his district, notifying the 

 farmers to clean up tlie weeds. At all times, however, efforts were 

 made to secure the good will of the farmers, and th(^ most eft'ective 

 methods of controlling the weeds were explained, the matter being 

 taken up personally with each resident farmer. In many cases it had 

 to ])e taken up ])y mail, and this did not always give the best results. 



The methods used in the control of the weeds have been various. 

 Many people have planted cultivated crops in which the usual cultiva- 

 tion successfully controls the weeds, iluch attention has been given to 

 summer fallowing the worst infested fields, following later with summer 

 cultivation. The most difficult problem in the control of the weed was 

 found in the large tract devoted to grain farming, which is not under 

 irrigation. Here many experiments have been carried out in the con- 

 trol of the weeds. On one of the large ranches infested with Russian 

 thistles an oil burner was placed, devised so as to throw a flame directly 

 upon the weeds. This was Cjuite successful, burning all the weeds and 

 any seed that had dropped to the ground, but was undesirable, as it 

 burned up all organic matter on the surface of the soil. The use of this 

 burner was discontinued because of mechanical defects of the machine. 



The one method that is being generally used on the large tracts is 

 immediate cultivation after the grain has been threshed, this sometimes 

 having to be repeated several times in one season. H' the thistle is not 

 too fully matured after harvesting, the land may be pastured with 

 either sheep or cattle, as they are very fond of young and tender thistles, 

 and will greatly assist in eradicating them. 



In the beginning of this weed campaign a large amount of work was 

 done, in order to comply with the requirements of the notices that were 

 served. This work was done with a view to ridding the land of the 

 weeds for that season only. Many were under the impression that this 

 campaign would need to be carried on for one year only — like the cam- 

 paign against the ground squirrels — and then only the resident farmers 



