192 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 
63 VICTORIA, A. 1900 
SPEAR-LEAVED GooseFvort (Monolepis chenopodioides, Moq.).—Annual. Native. A 
dark green succulent plant forming thick patches wherever soil is a little alkaline. 
Frequently growing so abundantly in root crops and gardens, as well as in wheat fields, 
as to require much labour to keep it down. The leaves of this plant are borne very 
thickly on the clustered stems, the lowest ones shaped like the head of a halberd or 
spear, but those above becoming gradually simpler in outline and smaller. Short seed- 
bearing spikes occur along almost the whole length of the stems. 
WEEDS AND WEEDERS. 
The introduction of weeders into the dry regions of the West, I consider an event 
of enormous importance to all grain growers. During the past five summers I have had 
exceptional opportunities, in driving through Manitoba and the North-west Territories, 
of meeting, and seeing the farms of, some of the best farmers in the West. In many 
places I have met men who made a practice of harrowing their growing grain crops 
with a light harrow, and invariably with great advantage. Upon the introduction of 
the various weeders these were used by a few of the most enterprising settlers, and 
almost always with decided satisfaction. So much was this the case that last spring 
several carloads of them were shipped into Manitoba by implement makers. The 
season of 1899, however, was so wet and late that the weeders were not used so much 
as would ordinarily have been the case. From what I have seen of these implements here, 
but particularly at the Indian Head and Brandon Experimental Farms, and from what I 
know to be the condition of the wheat fields in Manitoba and the North-west Territories 
with regard to annual weeds, I am convinced that there is more to be hoped for in the 
regular use of these implements after the grain is up, than from any other measure so 
far suggested for cleaning lands infested by such aggressive and persistent agricultural 
pests, as Stink Weed and the different kinds of Mustard, as well as all other seedlings 
growing among grain crops. Weeders can be used not only safely, but with the 
greatest advantage to a grain crop, from the time the leaf is an inch high until the 
plants have shot up 6 or even 8 inches. 
One of the frequent complaints made against weeders by western farmers is that 
they cover too narrow a strip of the crop at a time, but in the Yarmer’s Advocate of 
Winnipeg for December 5, at page 612, is given a cut, which the proprietors have kindly 
allowed me to use here, showing a successful way of uniting two of these implements 
and covering 24 feet at once. In this way the writer, W. F. Baker, of Portage la 
El eR LT ee Prairie, states that he can go 
, ryote 
ih if eat 
. Rr Rae eat oa _———soover nealy 50 acres in a day. 
a ea PRN |=). §..) | The two weeders are fastened 
¥ oe ie ee together with a rope, and the 
_ horses are kept apart by a 
| stick between the halters. The 
| wheat in the fields reported 
» 4 upon, had been cultivated twice 
4 atter it was 4 inches high, and 
he says, as has been found by 
: many others to be the case, 
Fig. 21.—Two weeders joined. and as I have myself frequently 
(Cut kindly lent by the Farmer’s Advocate.) seen: ‘If properly used when 
weeds are very small, nearly all weeds can be destroyed. On July 18, the wheat thus 
cultivated was 4 feet high and nicely out in head. The field shown in the cut was 
70 acres of the first crop after summer-fallowing. It yielded 1,800 bushels (nearly 26 
bushels to an acre), and so far as shipped, graded No. 1 hard. Another 70-acre field, 
cultivated with the weeder, yielded 29 bushels, while a larger field, that we thought did _ 
not require a weeder, yielded only 17 bushels.’ 
Mr. Angus Mackay, at Indian Head, has the greatest confidence possible in these 
implements, and last year used them on every acre he had under grain. 
