ARID AGRICULTURE. 



257 



MUSTARD 



THE 



SULPHATE 

 OF IRON 

 SPRAY FOB 

 MUSTARD 



plies by underground root stalks, so plowing or 

 cutting off the plants simply thickens them. 

 One of the best remedies is to manure and work 

 the soil to bring it into a good state of tilth. Pov- 

 erty weed does not like such civilized agriculture 

 and disappears. 



There are a number of forms of mustard 

 which occur as weeds. They are annual plants 

 and include, ordinarily, wild mustard, shepherd's 

 purse, pepper grass, and the tame black and yel- 

 low introduced mustards. These weeds become 

 detrimental to crops of grain and flax and do 

 much damage in such crops as alfalfa seed. Mus- 

 tard seed cannot be cleaned out of alfalfa seed 

 by any ordinary means, and while mustard sel- 

 dom becomes troublesome in alfalfa which is cut 

 for hay, the seed containing it never brings the 

 price of pure seed. The same statement is good 

 for sweet clover or other adulterants of alfalfa 

 seed. It will pay the alfalfa seed-raiser to go 

 through his alfalfa and destroy such plants by 

 hand. He should see to it that the threshing 

 machine or huller which threshes his alfalfa does 

 not contain mustard. Mustard seed may be 

 screened out of grains, but it is difficult to get 

 all of it. 



Mustard is one of the weeds that may be suc- 

 cessfully killed with sulphate of iron spray. The 

 weeds should be treated when they have from 

 four to eight leaves, or as soon as they stand a 



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