28 MINNESOTA WEEPS 



than cultivated oats, and many of the seeds fall to the ground to grow 

 the following year. After the seeds have been in the ground twenty 



months they are practically all dead. They are hard to separate 

 from oats and barley. 



The seeds are sometimes yellow in color and sometimes black. 

 They always have a black twisted awn which is sometimes broken off. 

 Some cultivated varieties have this black awn also. One of the best 

 marks of identification in the seed is the horseshoe-shaped scar at 

 the base of the seed which is surrounded by hairs or bristles. These 

 bristles are often broken off, but the horseshoe scar remains. The 

 wild oat is a bad annual weed. 



Wild oats flower before the end of June and ripen by the middle 

 of July. The seed is sown with that of some crop, carried by thresh- 

 ing machines, or distributed in manure which has not been well 

 rotted. A seed on the ground will be firmly fastened in the soil by 

 the twisting and untwisting of the awn which twists up when dry 

 and untwists again when moist. Any cereal grain growing in any 

 part of the State may be infested with this pest. Loose seeds are 

 found particularly in oats, barley, wheat, flax, and large-seeded 

 grasses. 



Eradication.- — Stop sowing seed gram containing wild oats. On 

 infested land, grow early maturing crops such as fall rye and barley, 

 thai may be harvested before the wild oats matures Where wild 

 oats have matured and shattered out, disc the land immediately after 

 harvesting to encourage germination. The plants that start to grow 

 may be destroyed by late fall plowing. A rotation of crops which 

 includes a cultivated crop that may be used as a cleaning crop will 

 greatly facilitate the destruction of wild oats. 



Wild oats may be controlled in a five-year rotation, including 

 (1) fall rye, (2) timothy and clover haw two crops, (3) pasture, (4) 

 corn, and (5) barley. 



A three-year rotation of (1) fall rye, (2) clover hay, two crops, 



corn for ears or silage is satisfactory. Cultivate the corn both 

 ways and hoc or pull stray plants by hand if they appear. 



Curled Dock (Rumen crispus L.) 



Other common names.— Dock, yellow dock, sour dock. 



Description. Curled dock is a perennial weed, with a large tap 

 root, sometimes two feet long. The plant is from two to three feet 

 high and has Large Leaves with a wavy margin. The name "curled 

 dock" comes from the wavy appearance of its leaves. The flowers 

 and seed:, arc found at the top of the plant and the mature seeds are 

 brown in color. '1 he seed proper is triangular, brown and shiny, 



