PASTURE WEEDS 383 



plied to the ground where the onions are growing. Before the 

 animals are needed for slaughter they should be taken from the 

 pasture and given other feeds for several days. This will help to 

 remove the distasteful flavor from the meat. 



Where very few onions have started in the soil, they should be 

 pulled out and destroyed. The field should then be limed and en- 

 riched with commercial fertilizers and plenty of seed of good grass 

 or other crops should be sown. Liming and fertilizing will en- 

 courage the growth of the other crops and this in turn will greatly 

 help to crowd out the onions and garlic. 



Spraying is one of the best remedies for the control of weeds 

 in grain fields, and may be used in hay fields and pastures. The 

 principle involved is that a solution of a spray material may be 

 made strong enough to injure weed tissues without seriously in- 

 juring the leaves of the grain. This is because the grain leaves 

 are provided with a l 'bloom, " which is a covering somewhat re- 

 sembling wax in protecting the surfaces of the leaves. The spray 

 will attack the unprotected weeds but will not affect the grain. 

 Sulfate of iron is most commonly used, the mixture being made at 

 the rate of 100 pounds of the sulfate to fifty gallons of water, and 

 this should spray about one acre of weeds. 



Probably the best time for spraying is when the weeds are be- 

 ginning to send up their flower stalks and just before the grain 

 begins to form its heads. One spraying at that time should be 

 enough to kill practically all the weeds then above ground, and 

 others will be smothered to some extent by the grain crop being 

 so much ahead of them. 



Pasture Weeds. Weeds in permanent pastures are hard to 

 control. As already stated they are chiefly perennials. Weeds 

 of this group are most easily destroyed by plowing, but if the pas- 

 ture is to be a permanent one, plowing is out of the question. Of 

 course if the circumstances are such as to allow the owner to plow 

 up the pasture and put it into some other crop until the perennial 

 weeds are destroyed, this plan would probably be the best, but in 

 many cases the permanent pasture is a rocky field, or a stumpy 

 field, or a low wet field, or very hilly, and any of these conditions 

 might make thorough plowing impossible. Other methods must 

 then be resorted to. 



When the pasture grass is short, sheep may be allowed to 

 graze for a short period and thus crop many of the weeds. Mow- 

 ing should also be practiced. It' a mowing machine can be run 



