ERADICATION OF WEEDS 



$05 



row or weeder. Later cultivations should be with tools that 

 stir the surface soil sufficiently to kill small weeds and main- 

 tain a dust mulch. Weeds that come up in the row should be 

 hoed or pulled out if necessary, though they may often be 

 destroyed when small by covering them with earth in culti- 

 vating. Cultivation 

 should be continued as 

 long as possible without 

 injury to the growing 

 crop, or until the ground 

 is completely shaded. 

 Poor cultivation, es- 

 pecially on fields that are 

 infested with perennial 

 weeds, is often worse 

 than none at all, as it sim- 

 ply serves to spread the 

 weeds. Among the most 

 common weeds of culti- 

 vated crops are nut 

 grass, Johnson grass, fox- 

 tail, crabgrass, quack 

 grass, knotweed, morn- 

 ing-glory, velvet weed, 

 milkweed, Canada this- 

 tle, sow thistle, ragweed, 

 and kinghead. Weeds and poor farming go together. 



699. Weeds of Grain Fields. In wheat, oat, barley, 

 and other small-grain fields, less opportunity is afforded for 

 the destruction of weeds than in cultivated crops. Here 

 most of the work must be done before the seed is sown. The 

 same kind of preparation, so far as possible, should be given 

 as has already been recommended for land which is to be 

 planted to cultivated crops. Great care should be taken 

 to insure the sowing of clean seed. It is of little use to harrow 



ritiure 1(34. — Wild buckwheat, or kiiotwdd, 

 allowing the way in which it twines around 

 crop plants with which it is growing. 



