PLATE 46. 



COUCH OR QUACK GRASS, Agropyrum repens (L.) Beauv. 



Other English names: Scutch, Twitch, Quitch. 

 Other Latin name : Triticum repens, L. 



Introduced and native. Perennial by very wide-spreading but shallow 

 fleshy rootstocks, forming large, matted beds. Flowering stems rather free- 

 ly produced, smooth above, downy on the leaf sheaths below. Flowers in 

 3 to 7-ilowered spikelets, forming a narrow spike with the spikelets lying 

 flatly against the central stalk. Leaves grayish green, rather distinctly 

 ribbed, and more or less hairy. Seed in the husk [Plate 56, fig. 79 natural 

 size and enlarged 4 times] about of an inch long, slender, 5 

 to 7-nerved, usually with an awn & inch long at the tip ; the seed itself is 

 shaped like a small grain of wheat f^ of an inch long with wide open crease, 

 the basal germ end pointed, and at the top a blunt fuzzy tip. 



Time of Flowering: About the end of June; seeds ripe July. 



Propagation : By seeds and extensively creeping rootstocks near the 

 surface of the ground. When broken by plough or cultivator, every piece 

 of the rootstock is capable of forming a new plant ; such pieces may be car- 

 ried from field to field on farm implements. 



Occurrence : In all kinds of soil. The eastern form with bright green 

 leaves, which is probably the European plant, that has been introduced, is 

 abundant east of the Prairie Provinces, and also in a few localities in Mani- 

 toba and the North-west. The native form with very grayish green foliage, 

 named Agropyrum glaucum, R. & S., var. occidentale, V. & S., is a far 

 less aggressive weed, even where both forms are growing close together. 



Injury : A most persistent weed in all deep-ploughed land, and in all 

 crops, with great power of spreading and choking out other plants. The. 

 seeds are a very common impurity among seeds of the coarser grasses and in 

 oats. 



Remedy : Shallow ploughing in hot weather is essential in clearing land 

 of this well known weed. Thorough harrowing after ploughing will drag 

 out many of the fleshy rootstocks, which will soon dry up in the sun and 

 can be burnt. 



Rape sown after the land has been harrowed two or three times and well 

 cultivated, is one of the best cleaning crops for late sowing; the seed should 

 be sown 4 pounds to the acre in drills 26 inches apart, and the field kept 

 clean with horse hoe, and afterwards with more or less hand hoeing if re- 

 quired. The land may be put under another hoed crop, corn, potatoes or 

 other roots the following year. 



It is recommended by some who have had experience in fighting Quack 

 Grass, that in badly infested fields, the land be ploughed shallow late in the 

 autumn and well cultivated to expose the rootstocks to the action of the frost. 

 In the spring, re-plough shallow, and keep the ground stirred frequently 

 enough to prevent new growth till midsummer, then sow a smothering crop, 

 such as buckwheat or millet, which will choke out the weakened plants. It 

 may be necessary sometimes to follow the above treatment with a hoed crop. 



87 



