CHENOPODIACEAE (GOOSEFOOT FAMILY) 119 
Means of control 
Sow clean seed. Prevent the production of seed. When the 
weed is cut close to the ground before seeding, it dies. Young 
seedlings, six or eight inches high, may be plowed under, a drag- 
chain being used to help pull them beneath the turning furrow. 
On such land, plowed as late as July, a soiling crop of corn or rape 
may be grown. In such cultivated crops as potatoes, corn, and 
beets, tillage should be continued later than is customary. In 
grain fields, particularly those harvested with a header, the stubbles 
should be burned over, first being mowed and dried for a few days 
if the weeds are still green. Entire communities should be con- 
cerned in keeping highways, firebreaks, and all waste land clean of 
the pest. 
RUSSIAN PIGWEED 
Azyris amarantoides, L. 
Introduced. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: June to July. 
Seed-time: July to August. 
Range: Manitoba, Minnesota, and the Dakotas. 
Habitat: Grain fields, meadows, railway embankments, roadsides, 
and waste places. 
A native of Siberia, first appearing in this country in 1886, in 
Canada near Winnipeg, Manitoba; since when the plant has 
spread very rapidly, east, west, and south. It is a coarse, deeply 
rooted, grossly feeding weed, two to four feet in height, widely 
branched and very leafy, seriously crowding the crops among 
which it grows. When young, it somewhat resembles Lamb’s 
Quarters, but, instead of being mealy, the branches and under 
side of the leaves are clothed with very short, star-shaped 
hairs. (Fig. 73.) 
Stem rather stout, grooved, light-colored, very hard and woody 
when mature, and injurious to harvesting machines. Leaves 
alternate, lance-shaped, with short petioles, sparsely toothed or 
wavy-edged, the upper ones entire. Flowers of two kinds, at first 
green and inconspicuous, the staminate ones in slender spikes, 
terminating the many branchlets; the fertile flowers below, thickly 
