Johnson Grass Control 341 



almost all of the Johnson grass had been destroyed and without ques- 

 tion the pest can easily be controlled in future by digging out the very 

 few remaining plants with a shovel or a grub hoe. 



fie;ld d; summer pasture, winter grain 



The stand of Johnson grass on this field in 1915 was about as heavy 

 as could be grown. It was plowed in November of that year and 

 seeded to barley in December. The perfect stand and vigorous growth 

 of barley in the spring of 1916 served to hold the Johnson grass well 

 in check until the harvest in May. At this time the land was sufficiently 

 dry to prevent rapid growth of Johnson grass without irrigation. 

 In the middle of June, 1916, the land was irrigated and enough sheep 

 were turned in to graze closely all edible, weeds. In order to force the 

 Johnson grass to send out new foliage and thereby hasten the exhaustion 

 of the rootstocks the irrigations which follo\yed were frecjuent enough 

 to keep the land very moist at all times. In a very few weeks a marked 

 diminution in the vigor of the grass was noted and, to supply winter pas- 

 ture to supplement the growth of the Johnson grass in late fall and 

 early spring, the land was thoroughly disked in November and seeded 

 to barley in December. Part of this crop, which was more than suffi- 

 cient for the needs of the sheep, was harvested in June, 1917, at which 

 time the Johnson grass appeared to be destroyed. In September it 

 was again plowed preparatory to seeding for pasture and hay purposes, 

 and by the middle of November the remaining Johnson grass plants 

 were so few that a few hours' work of one man sufficed to clean up 

 entirely the 20 acres. 



FIELD E ; intensive cultivation, cotton and corn 

 This 10- acre tract, which was very foul indeed (see Fig. 3). was 

 partially mowed and burned over in the fall of 1915. In February, 

 1916, it was plowed preparatory to planting to cotton. Considerable 

 leveling was necessary and to facilitate this the land was irrigated twice. 

 Soon there was a solid mass of Johnson grass over the entire field and 

 in spite of the fact that the leveling necessitated replowing in March 

 the effect on the Johnson grass was negligible. The cotton was planted 

 about the middle of April and in a couple of weeks was almost hidden 

 by the growth of the weed. Cultivation with sweeps, which cut every 

 bit of vegetation within their path, was started early in May and hoes 

 were used at the same time to chop out the weeds in the cotton rows. A 

 great deal of hoeing and cultivating was necessary for the next two 

 months, by v/hich time the vigor of the Johnson grass had materially 

 diminished. It was very easy to keep the grass in check the remainder 



