368 



SUCCESSFUL FARMING 



two seeds. It is claimed that one of the two seeds germinate the first year 

 and the other the following year, thus insuring at least seed for two years. 

 Control. — Clean cultivation and the rotation of crops are recommended 

 for this obnoxious weed. Infested corn fields should be put into a small 

 grain crop, followed by clover or grass. The harvesting of these crops will 

 kill or behead the weed before it has time to grow much or develop burs. 

 Plants that have formed burs should be cut, raked and burned. 



Field Bindweed or Wild Morning Glory. — It is most commoniy found 



in grain fields, meadows and waste places. 

 "It is a most obnoxious weed, spreading 

 chiefly by means of its long, creeping, cord- 

 like roots, which at any part of their length 

 may bud new plants." Small bits of the 

 roots may be broken off and carried quite 

 a distance (by a cultivator and produce 

 new plants. 



"The stems are smooth, slightly 

 angled, slender, one to three feet long, twin- 

 ing about and over any plants within 

 reach," tending to smother them. The 

 leaves are cordate or heart-shaped, one to 

 one and one-half inches long, with back- 

 ward pointing lobes at the base. The 

 flowers are pink, sometimes nearly white, 

 funnel-shaped, about one inch in diameter 

 at the mouth of the tube. 



This plant is propagated by seed and 

 the underground fleshy root-stocks. It 

 flowers from June throughout the summer 

 and mature seed may be found in July. 



The seeds, which are borne in globular, 



two-celled capsules, are dull, dark brown, 



about one-eighth inch long, rough, oval, 



with one side flat and the other rounded. 



Control. — If the land is planted to crops that can be cultivated very 



often throughout the growing season, field bindweed can be completely 



eradicated in two years. 



When this weed grows in pastures and waste places, its growth may be 

 checked by allowing sheep to have access to the places where it grows. Three 

 years of pasturing with a large number of sheep will greatly weaken this 

 pest, if not kill it entirely. 



Infested land should be plowed in the late summer after a crop has 

 been removed and hogs which have not been ringed turned in for the 

 purpose of turning out and eating the succulent roots, of which they are 



1 Courtesy of The Pennsylvania Farmer. • 



Cocklebur (Xanlhium canadense) . 1 

 A — Bur two-thirds natural size. 



