THE GRASS FAMILY 29 



Injury: Wild Oats are hardier and more vigorous than 

 cultivated varieties of cereals. Unlike those of the latter, the 

 Wild Oat seeds retain their vitality for several years, though 

 probably not longer than seven years even in the dry soils of 

 the western plains. The seeds on the upper part of the head and 

 on the tips of the branches ripen earlier than those less exposed. 

 The earlier seeds are dropped before or during harvest; thus 

 Wild Oats tend to increase on lands where the production of 

 cereal grains predominates. The later maturing seeds are har- 

 vested with the crop and remain in commercial wheat, oats and 

 barley. They are the most prevalent impurity in western- 

 grown grain and the annual loss entailed thereby is enormous. 



Remedy: Sow clean seed grain. In the eastern provinces 

 lands polluted with Wild Oats may be seeded to grass for hay or 

 pasture for five years. Surface cultivation after harvest will 

 start germination of the seeds scattered during harvest. Any 

 method of cultivation or arrangement of crops that will induce 

 the seeds in the soil to germinate and permit the destruction 

 of the plants before they have produced seed will eventually exter- 

 minate Wild Oats. A short crop rotation, with clean cultivation 

 of the hoed crop and seeding to clover or grasses, with a soiling 

 or other crop in which Wild Oats can not mature and drop their 

 seeds, will do much to clean the land of this pest. 



To eradicate Wild Oats in the Prairie Provinces, the land 

 should be plowed shallow or disced immediately after an infested 

 crop is harvested; the best method is to have the disc follow 

 behind the binder. The purpose of this is to cover the seeds 

 of Wild Oats. Some of them will germinate in the autumn; 

 the remainder will start in the spring. As soon as they appear 

 in the spring, the ground should be plowed shallow to destroy 

 them and to start another growth. This should be followed in 

 about two weeks by deep plowing, to bring up the seeds lying 

 at a greater depth. Harrow after each plowing, to start growth. 

 During the remainder of the summer Wild Oats should be kept 

 down by the use of the disc or broad-shared cultivator. The 



