THE MUSTARD FAMILY 81 



Injury: A most persistent and aggressive enemy of the 

 western farmer. This pest is found in the greatest abundance 

 in the rich lands of the Red River Valley, where it flourishes 

 with remarkable vigour and where it is difficult to control it on 

 account of the distribution of its seeds by spring floods. When 

 once established the soil soon becomes polluted with it, and on 

 prairie lands it crowds out cereal grains almost to the limit 

 of profitable production. 



Remedy: Hand-pulling and burning is probably the best 

 way to stamp out Stinkweed in new localities and in small 

 quantities, but when it is thoroughly established more drastic 

 measures must be adopted. They are all based on some method 

 by which the seeds are covered up to make them germinate; 

 then the young plants are destroyed with the harrow, cultivator 

 or plow before seeds ripen. The land should be cultivated as 

 soon as a fresh growth of the weed develops. Great care must 

 be taken not to plow down any full-sized pods, even though 

 they may be green, as it has been proven that in the dry climate 

 of the West such seeds can ripen beneath the soil. On land 

 to be summer-fallowed, if there is a heavy growth of this weed 

 with fully formed seed pods, the plants should be mowed down, 

 removed from the field and piled on a piece of hard land, where, 

 after drying, they can be burnt. T. N. Willing says truly: 

 "Close attention should be given to any portion of a farm where 

 Stinkweed has been noticed and careful persistent work will 

 be required to eradicate it; but it will pay well to drop all other 

 work and fight this weed when it is first noticed." 



The most important measure to clear the land of Stink- 

 weed is harrowing the growing crop to kill the seedlings. The 

 harrowing should commence before the crop emerges from the 

 ground, be repeated when the grain is about three inches high, 

 and repeated again in bad cases when the grain is five or six 

 inches high. Experiments in the Red River Valley have shown 

 this method to be most effective; and clean fields, giving crops 

 of forty bushels per acre, may there be seen, close to others 

 bearing not more than from ten to twelve bushels per acre, 



