GBAMINEAE (GRASS FAMILY) 63 



Means of control 



There is no easy way to subdue Quack-grass ; but it can be done, 

 and in a single season, without loss of the use of the ground. It 

 must be remembered that the storehouse of the plant is its creeping 

 rootstock, the material for the growth of which comes from the food 

 assimilated by the green leaves, therefore no green leaves must be 

 allowed to develop. Professor Beal, the noted botanist of the 

 Michigan Experiment Station, outlines the following plan, based on 

 long practical use : " If convenient, pasture closely for a whole 

 growing season, which prevents the production of new, thrifty 

 rootstocks, then, if the sod be well turned under deep, rolled and 

 harrowed, much of the grass will be killed at once. Ordinarily I 

 plow late in the fall or very early in the spring, rain or shine, wet or 

 dry, or even in June, and cultivate with a shovel-toothed cultivator 

 every three days till the middle of June or later, if starting the work 

 later. Rarely, if the weather be wet and hot, cultivate every two 

 and a half days. Keep all green leaves from showing themselves. 

 Do not delay to see green leaves. A harrow that does not cut 

 off the stems below the surface of the ground is not efficient." A 

 late crop of corn can be grown on this land and the last spears of 

 the grass killed in its cultivation. 



When the grass takes possession of cultivated ground its root- 

 stocks are usually much deeper in the soil than in pastures and 

 meadows. An early fall plowing, with the furrow turned just deep 

 enough to cut the matted rootstocks free from the subsoil (usually 

 about six inches), followed by toothed harrowing to work the soil 

 free from the rootstocks so that they may be raked into piles to be 

 dried and burned or thoroughly rotted in a compost heap, is another 

 good way to fight Quack-grass. Two bouts of such fall plowing 

 and harrowing, raking, and burning, the second a little deeper and 

 crosswise of the first, with early and careful cultivation in the spring, 

 followed by a hoed crop thoroughly tilled until midsummer, will 

 clean out the weed ; and the enlarged yield of the crop due to the 

 needful extra cultivation will recompense the increase of care and 

 labor. 



Small areas of the pest may be smothered to death by being covered 

 with boards, or spreading thick with manure or straw (not less 

 than a foot deep and well packed down so as to exclude air), or with 



