382 WEEDS 



with a patch here and there over much of the field, some have 

 adopted the method of seeding the whole area to such a crop as 

 Sudan grass. This crop may be cut several times in one season. 

 This will prevent the Johnson grass from forming seed, and to this 

 extent will control its spread. This should not be considered a 

 means of entirely eradicating it, but rather a means of making 

 the best of it while we have it. 



Quack Grass. (Witch Grass). This is a northern weed and 

 has slender running rootstalks with nodes only an inch or less 

 apart. The rootstalks are readily broken to pieces by tillage ma- 

 chinery and the plant is thus rapidly spread over the farm, as each 

 piece will grow wherever it comes in contact with the soil. Small 

 areas may be kept down by pasturing closely with hogs or poultry. 

 As in the case of Canada thistle and Johnson grass, the keynote 

 to destruction is the prevention of leaf growth and the starva- 

 tion of the underground parts. The rootstalks are very shallow 

 and the field plowing will be helpful. Small areas of the plant 

 may be smothered by applications of salt to prevent the leaf 

 growth. 



Wild Onions and Garlic. Weeds of this group are severe pests 

 in pastures, hay fields and rich meadow lands. They are sometimes 

 very bad in cultivated fields. Stock do not object to eating the 

 tops, but the milk of dairy cows and the meat of other animals is 

 affected in flavor when these weeds form a large proportion of the 

 feed. Land infested with wild onions and garlic will often have to 

 be abandoned for pasture purposes because of the bad flavors 

 resulting in the products. 



One plan of control is to plow the crop under in April or May 

 and to again plow in November. In the middle and southern 

 states the crop will grow throughout the winter. These two plow- 

 ings will help to prevent the leaf growth, particularly if each of the 

 plowings be followed with some harrowing or cultivation. During 

 the summer season a culture crop is grown and kept thoroughly 

 tilled, and thus the use of the ground will not be lost. 



Very small patches may be planted and used for cattle lots 

 during the winter season in regions where the ground is not frozen 

 much of the time. The puddling of the soil by the trampling of 

 the animals will cause most of the bulbs to rot and little or no 

 growth will come thereafter. 



If sheep be used to pasture the onion field, they may be in- 

 duced to eat the tops readily if all the salt the animals get is ap- 



