42 Farmers’ Bulletin 1294. 
where obstructions prevent mowing. The cost of this operation 
varies, according to the amount of solution used, from $11 per acre up. 
In some cases it may become clesirable to use a flame-throwing torch 
with oil as a fuel. In this event any reliable sprayer may be used 
to produce a spray for oil-burning purposes, providing it is capable 
of maintaining 100 pounds pressure and is fitted with a spray rod 
and Bordeaux nozzle. Caution must be exercised to have the nozzle 
opened as little as possible at 100 pounds pressure, so that oil may 
not remain on the ground unconsumed. It is ep Hee to procure 
34-inch “oil hose” if possible, as the ordinary spray hose will not 
last long when used for oil. 
Oil-burning of weed areas, headlands, and patches is sometimes 
useful, especi ially under suburban conditions, and can be done most 
economically during the spring, when the material to be burned is 
dry. At such times it is possible to destroy 99 per cent of the borers 
contained in the material so treated. It is possible to burn weeds in 
this way sufficiently when they are green so that, even where they 
are not entirely consumed by the fire, the heat produced is so intense 
that the borers are killed. The cost of burning weed areas is high 
and varies from $12 per acre upward, depending upon the fuel used 
and the condition of the weed growth. Clean, hight fuel oil, not 
heavier than 0.36 to 0.40 specific gravity, is the cheapest for large 
operations. Ordinary kerosene is casier to secure and cleaner to 
handle. After the hose and sprayer have been used for this work, 
they should be thoroughly washed with soapsuds. Burning over weed 
areas, after the aods have been mowed, is helpful, as many borers 
are likely to be left in the stubble. Oil burning is also of much 
assistance in consuming material that has been piled or cornstalks 
that have been raked into windrows. 
In the Boston market-garden towns several species of weeds are 
often heavily infested w ith the European corn borer. In the culti- 
vated fields these weeds are usually destroyed by cultivation or are 
plowed under, and many corn borers are killed by these methods. 
Weeds on the headlands, along fences and ditches, and. around build- 
ings are allowed to grow unmolested, however, and furnish ideal 
breeding places where large numbers of moths are produced to in- 
fest cultivated crops in neighboring fields. These fields should be 
plowed as close to the fences and ditches as possible, thus furnishing 
more land for cultivation and less for weeds. Orchards should be 
kept cultivated. Uncultivated land around buildings should be kept 
as lawns, and uncultivated fields should be turned “into meadows or 
pasture. 
Many of the common host plants of the corn borer which occur 
on the farm, such as barnyard grass, pigweed, smartweed, cocklebur, 
and horseweed, may be eradicated if they are kept from going to 
seed. For this reason it is advisable to mow the weeds along fences 
and around buildings before seed is produced. In order to “destroy 
the corn borers, the weeds should be cut close to the ground, and 
should be raked into piles and burned as soon as possible. This can 
usually be done the day after they are cut. If the mowing is delayed 
until the weeds are in flower, most. of such weeds will be killed. Any 
weeds which send up new stems, or which sprout from new seed, may 
be destroyed in the fall, winter, or spring by burning over such areas. 
As most of the headlands and land around buildings are covered 
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