PLOWING TO KILL WEEDS 



85 



77ie identical spot in the picture shown on page eighty-four taken the 

 following year. This field had no hand cultivation, simply that of a 

 one-row horse cultivator. None of the varieties of weeds turned under 

 appeared in this field. 



will immediately destroy the weeds. The great trouble 

 with unsuccessful practices of this kind has been the 

 failure to carry the after work through carefully enough 

 to kill all sprouting weeds. Quack grass has been suc- 

 cessfully eradicated by this method but the operator 

 did not permit a single leaf or stem to develop. In one 

 instance the farmer, after plowing, kept up this cultiva- 

 ting operation from spring until fall. He wanted to 

 plant corn on that field but his greater ambition was to 

 kill the quack grass, so he kept cultivating until fall and 

 sowed the field to fall wheat, reaping a much better crop 

 than he would have had he planted corn, and he entirely 

 rid the field of quack grass. 



The secret of his success lay in the fact that he kept the 

 stems and leaves from drinking in the sunlight to sustain 

 the roots. The result was the root system started to 

 rot as it will do with all weeds just exactly as it does 

 with other plants. 



