46 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Feb^ 



Pigeon Weed, or Red Root.* 



Prize Essay, by Chari.es M. Stark. Yates county. 



It seems in this day and generation, that to 

 make any subject interesting enough to gain at- 

 tention, it must be shown that to practice it is a 

 matter of pecuniary interest, and co^^sequent}y in 

 my effort to show the best method of destroying 

 red root, 1 shall keep this interest of the farmer 

 continually in view. 



There can be no farmer in Yates county, that 

 does not know that t?ie average yield of the wheat 

 crop is seriously lessened by the presence of this 

 weed, and the expense of harvesting and thresh- 

 ing very materially increased by it. Just so far 

 as this is true, time and money may be profitably 

 expended in its destruction. Chemistry has dem- 

 onstrated that grains of all kinds are ma^de up of 

 certain earths, salts, &;c., and though in the 

 growth of all plants a large proportion is taken 

 from the atmosphere, still the minute particles 

 which are taken from the soil in the formation of 

 the stalk and grain must be present ; for, if but 

 one of the many parts necessary be absent, 

 though there may be an abundance of all the oth- 

 ers, failure is certain. It seeins to be a peculiar 

 characteristic of this weed, that it appropriates 

 everything that it needs in the soil to perfect 

 itself, without reference to anything else that may 

 claim a share with it. When growing with 

 wheat, if there be food enough for both, then both 

 may be perfected ; if not, the wheat must suffer. 

 It is not so with the Canada thistle ; this plant 

 strikes its root to a great depth, and brings up 

 food ; and with the thistle there is a division of 

 the spoils, and wheat is often larger in the niidst 

 of them, than where it is free from their pres- 

 ence. But this grasping, miserly weed, appro- 

 priates everything to itself, until, if wheat follow 

 wheat for two or three successive crops, it re- 

 mains in the entire possession of the soil. Thirty 

 years since, red root was unknown in Yates 

 county, and now, such is the small amount of 

 successful effort against it, that hundreds of bush- 

 els of the seed are purchased at the Yates county 

 oil mill, and if it were worth 8^. instead of Is. 

 6d., these hundreds would be thousands. It is 

 very generally considered that the production of 

 two and a half or three bushels of clover seed 

 from an acre, after all the acknowledged benefit 

 derived from the roots, is a heavy tax upon the 

 soil. If this be true, how great an exhauster 

 must pigeon weed be, with its roots penetrating 

 but a little way beneath the surface, more than 

 double the seed produced, and a hard woody 

 stalk perfected. It may seem to some a waste 

 of time and words to attempt to prove what may 

 justly be considered an axiom, viz : that the 

 presence of red root is "evil, only evil, and that 

 continually;" yet it is my opinion that if we 



* Sometimes called Steen 

 Seed, Wheat Thief. 



Croat, Lithospermum, Sivuy 



could, by a chemical analysis, see the hidden 

 mysteries of this destructive plant, we should be- 

 surprised at the record of the amount it is steal- 

 ing from us, and would look about for a way of 

 escape from its blighting presence ; and farther 

 than this, the startling fact would be evident ta- 

 us, that we must exterminate the nuisance, or 

 see if exterminate our wheat crop. 



When we take into consideration the fact, that 

 it requires a united and continued effort lo destroy 

 it, [united, because if one farmer raises it, hi& 

 neighbor viust, as neither the gizzard of a fowl, 

 nor the stomach of an ox can destroy its germi- 

 nating powe-r; continned, because it will lie in 

 the ground for years,) we might almost despair 

 of its destruction, were it not that despair is a 

 word not found in the farmer's vocabulary. 



Th?re can be but one way to get rid of this- 

 wide spread and growing evil ; and though we 

 may theorize upon other subjects, this is, in ag- 

 riculture, a matter of fact. We may in other- 

 cases, apply scientific knowledge, feeding one 

 plant and starving another; but in respect lo the 

 weed under consideration, this is impossible, for 

 when it has taken aU, like the leech, its cry is 

 still, " give, give." If a farmer wishes and 

 dstermines (for wishing will not effect the object) 

 to exterminate this plant, he must make up his 

 mind to two things: fii-st, never to sow any of 

 the seed ; secondly, never to allow any that is in 

 the ground to arrive at maturity. This may be 

 done by pulling up the weed while in blossom ; 

 mowing will not accomplish it, because it ripens 

 its seed below the reach of the scythe. I will 

 here remark, that I know of but three farms in 

 Yates county, upon which this method can be 

 fully and profitably practiced. Upon these, I 

 believe, there is no red root, except that which 

 is carried on by birds; (I speak of its being 

 propagated in this way, not from absolute knowl- 

 edge, but from the fact that it generally makes 

 its appearance under the shade trees.) It is well 

 known to all scientific and practical farmers, and' 

 I think disputed by none, that a regular system 

 of rotation is the only correct manner of farming;, 

 and I wish to show that by this very method, this 

 weed can be subdued with more certainty and at 

 a less cost than in any other way. The first 

 thing to be considered, is the fact, that red root 

 is a biennial plant, that will not germinate to any 

 great extent in the spring, it being its nature ta 

 come up in autumn, and can not therefore be 

 eradicated without fall plowing. I would recom- 

 mend the following practice : The first crop, 

 wheat ; the ground to be plowed but once, at 

 least eight inches deep, which should be done in 

 July, after which it should be thoroughly pulver- 

 ized with a cultivator, to the depthof four inches. 

 My reason for preparing the ground in this way, 

 is this : the most of our land is seeded down after 

 wheat, and of course receives its red root seed- 

 ing at the same time, consequently a very large 



