176 GRUCIFERAE (MUSTARD FAMILY) 



A very few of these seeds ground by accident with a grist of wheat, 

 ruins the flour, and grain that contains them is very sharply cut 

 in price. 



Means of control 



Sow clean seed. If the infestation is new, hand-pull and destroy 

 all plants before any fruits mature, even though the task be very 

 strenuous. In grain fields, if seeds have been allowed to ripen, 

 burn over the stubbles for the purpose of destroying those that have 

 fallen on the ground. Give surface cultivation in order to encour- 

 age germination of such seeds as are in the soil, and plow the young 

 plants under while still in the rosette stage of growth. But never 

 turn under any plants bearing developed pods, even though they 

 may be green, for they go on ripening on the stalks, when under the 

 warm soil, quite as well as or better than above it. Autumn- 

 grown plants are the most obnoxious, since they come earliest into 

 bloom and fruit the next season, and every effort should be made to 

 kill as many of these as possible. Spring seedlings may be dragged 

 out of grain fields with small-toothed weeding harrows, beginning 

 when the grain is only about three inches high and repeating the 

 operation once or twice afterwards a treatment which greatly 

 benefits the crop at the same time that it kills the weeds. If 

 practicable, put the ground to a cultivated crop, which should be 

 given very thorough tillage, before the land is used again for grain. 



COMMON PEPPERGRASS 

 Lepidium virglnicum, L. 



Other English names: Tongue Grass, Bird's Pepper. 



Native. Annual and winter annual. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: May to September. 



Seed-time: Late June to October. 



Range: Nova Scotia to Minnesota, southward to Florida, Texas, 



and Mexico. 

 Habitat: Grain and clover fields, roadsides, and waste places. 



Stem six inches to two feet tall, much branched. The weed 

 sometimes becomes a tumbleweed because of this spreading growth. 



