WEEDS OF MONTANA. 21 



ville, where it has proven a dangerous pest. It should be dug up 

 or cut off below the crown of the root before it blooms. It is not 

 a perennial like the Canada thistle and only needs to be kept 

 down for a year or two and prevented from seeding. It should not 

 be allowed to become established in any locality and any person 

 permitting it to grow on his land should be prosecuted under the 

 law now in force. 



A great difficulty- in the extermination of weeds is the fact that 

 the seeds of many species will lie in the soil for several years with- 

 out losing their vitality and when turned up to the surface will 

 germinate and produce a new crop of weeds in ground which is 

 considered cleared. It is for this reason that several years of dili- 

 gent culture is necessary before a field can be cleared of such weeds 

 as the sunflower, wild oats and wild mustard and it is for this rea- 

 son that summer. fallow, unless followed by cultivation, will result 

 in seeding the field with weeds more than before. A field can not 

 be cleared of noxious weeds until all the seeds can be caused to 

 germinate and then killed. 



There is no question but that the injury clone the growing 

 crops in this state by the growth of weeds amounts to mam- hun- 

 dred thousand dollars every year and yet there is no systematic 

 method devised for their eradication. Each man tills his own fields 

 with little regard to the growth and distribution of weeds from 

 infected localities; and no combined attempt is made to stamp out 

 the pests in such affected areas. If we treated contagious diseases 

 it this way-, it would be utterly impossible to stay the deadly epi- 

 demics. Isolation and united effort is made against such diseases 

 in every community, and a similar effort against weeds would cer- 

 tainly be successful in this state, where the agricultural communi- 

 ties are naturally more or less isolated from each other. 



The only feasible method then for combatting weeds in Mon- 

 tana where few of the more dangerous and troublesome species 

 have yet m'ore than secured a foothold, is by the organization of 

 the farmers into districts designated by the valley or irrigation 

 system and the appointment or election of a competent weed in- 

 spector for each district, whose duty it shall be to keep a lookout 

 for the appearance of any new or dangerous weeds in his district 

 and to cause the eradication of such pests as may already be es- 



