32 GRAMINEAE (GRASS FAMILY) 
Range: All cultivated regions of the world. 
Habitat: All soils; invades any crop. 
The seeds of this weed are among the most frequent impurities 
of other grass seeds and of clover and grain. It was probably in 
such company that it came to us from Europe, with the early set- 
tlers. Gnesi in the soil, it retains its vitality for years, springing up 
Fic. 9.— Yellow Foxtail 
(Setaria glauca). X}. 
Means of control 
whenever brought near enough to surfate 
warmth and light. Cattle will eat it when 
young but it soon becomes woody and 
worthless. Birds and poultry, especially 
turkeys, are very fond of the seeds, which 
they strip from the stalks. (Fig. 9.) 
Culms branching from the base, growing 
from fibrous and clustered roots, usually 
one to four feet tall—though when started 
late, and pressed for time, Foxtail matures 
seed when no more than three inches high; 
stalks compressed at the base, sometimes 
decumbent. Sheaths loose, compressed, 
the lower ones often tinged with red; 
blades three to six inches long, nearly a 
half-inch wide, flat, smooth, and hanging 
with a twist. Spikes two to four inches 
long, the spikelets closely crowded, one- 
seeded, subtended by an involucral cluster 
of six to ten upwardly barbed, brownish 
yellow bristles much longer than the 
spikelets. Seeds with palea and _ finely 
wrinkled lemma both adherent, yellowish 
brown, long ovoid, about a tenth of an 
inch in length. 
In grain fields, stubbles should be given surface cultivation; 
or, if the soil is dry enough, burning over will destroy the seeds that 
have fallen on the ground. In cultivated crops tillage should be 
continued very late, in order to prevent the development and dis- 
