126 



ELEMENTS OF FARM PRACTICE 



Figure 53. — Seeds of (1) wild pea or vetch; 

 (2) wild buckwheat; (3) ragweed or king- 

 head; (4) corn cockle. 



by buying or using seed grain that contains these weed 

 seeds. The weeds in each year's crop may be lessened 

 noticeably by sowing only grain free of weed seeds. 



Farmers should be 

 able to recognize the 

 weed seeds found in grain, 

 so that they may not 

 buy and use seed grain 

 that contains seeds of 

 dangerous weeds. 



Description. — Below 

 is given a brief descrip- 

 tion of five kinds of weed 

 seeds most commonly 

 found in grain : 



Com cockle or blue 

 cockle is a rough, black, somewhat triangular seed, about 

 as large and heavy as a kernel of wheat. It is common 

 in seed wheat, as it is hard to separate these seeds from 

 the grain. See Figure 53. 



Ragweed or kSighead is a dark brown heavy seed. 

 The seeds vary in size from slightly smaller to consider- 

 ably larger than a kernel of wheat. They are easily recog- 

 nized by the crown-like appearance of the tip. The seed 

 is smaller at the base, with several ribs extending length- 

 wise and terminating in as many points around a central 



point in the tip, giving 

 it the crown-like ap- 

 pearance mentioned. It 

 is common in grain in 

 the Red River Valley. 

 See Figure 53. 



Wild oats may be 

 distinguished from com- 

 mon white oats by the 

 following points: Wild 

 oats are darker in color, 

 are more slender, have 

 a small tuft of hair at 



Figure 54.— Seeds of (1) wild oats; (2) tame oats, the baSe and haVC Sb 



