1896 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
367 
OATS MIXED WITH CHARLOCK. 
HOW TO KII,I> THIS BAD WEED. 
I have this letter from one of your readers : 
I have 10 acres sown to oats and peas, and seeded with clover 
which, on coming up, I find well seeded with a plant which looks 
like mustard. I bought the oats, and, as I got them of a jrood, 
honest seedsman, I did not look to see whether they were clean 
or not. Now, I am at a loss to know what to do with the field, 
whether to sacrifice the seeding- and plow the whole thing down, 
and thus kill the weed, or sow on another peck of clover seed to 
the acre, and cut the oats and peas quite green before the mustard 
gets ripe, and then have the clover smother the weeds out. 
The weed that looks like mustard is, in all proba¬ 
bility, charlock, one of the most persistent and worst 
weeds to get out of land, in the whole weed list. A 
number of years ago I bought two bushels of Prin¬ 
gle’s improved barley, and, thinking the seller per¬ 
fectly reliable, I did not examine the seed. On com¬ 
ing up, the ground was nicely seeded to charlock, and 
it cost me over $300 in time before I was entirely clear 
of the pest. 
The weak spot in the plan proposed of smothering 
out the charlock, is that even if he cut the oats and 
peas before a single seed gets ripe enough to grow, 
the stubble will sprout, and every plant, even if it 
get four inches high, will ripen a few seeds. I would 
advise allowing it to grow until about time to plow 
for buckwheat, and then turn all under, being careful 
that not a single plant be left. Fit the land and sow 
dry. Springs and wells which had never been known 
to fail, have dried up. Where not cultivated, the 
earth has been as dry as it could possibly be, appar¬ 
ently, for many feet below the surface ; but in my 
garden and strawberry patch, which I kept well cul¬ 
tivated with a 14-tooth cultivator, the ground was 
moist and in good tilth at any time during the season, 
and the crops did not suffer from the drought. The 
top soil stirred by the cultivator, was about as dry 
and loose as ashes ; but when one brushed off that 
two inches of dry soil or dust, he found the soil moist 
and friable. 
One of the hardest things I have had to do is to 
teach my hired help to hoe. Not one in fifty under¬ 
stands the first principles of proper hoeing. I set a 
man last week to hoeing a field of strawberries which 
had lately been set. They were set, unavoidably, 
when the ground was quite wet, and as a consequence, 
it was quite hard about the plants. I had cultivated 
as close to them as I could with the cultivator, and 
set the hired man to loosen the soil about the plants, 
and destroy the weeds that were just appearing above 
ground. Being busy at something else, I did not 
notice how he was doing his work ; but when I exam¬ 
ined it, I found that he had hoed the earth away from 
the plants, leaving the hard surface bare, with the 
marks made with the spade in setting the plants in 
the wet ground exposed. It would have been better 
wheat broadcasted, and harrowed. I did not use a 
plank drag, as the clover seed was sown before har¬ 
rowing, and I was prevented by rain. The buck¬ 
wheat did not mature before frost, and I let it fall 
down as a mulch or winter protection. The clover is 
a perfect success, and would turn off more hay than 
Red clover on similar land sown in the spring of 1895. 
The bees have been visiting the clover for three 
weeks. I shall cut it all for seed this year. 
Now comes the other side : I sowed 15 acres on well 
prepared land the last of September, but it did not 
rain to make it come up until about November 1 The 
plants grew well until winter set in, but this spring 
there is but little left. I also sowed one acre in corn 
at the last cultivation, which perished during the dry 
spell. This is my first experience with Crimson 
clover, except that I sowed one pound in April, 1895, 
with oats, which also was a failure. The results are 
very gratifying to me, and I shall sow 40 or 50 acres 
this year, if the season permit. A. c. M. 
Washington County, Va. 
Ideal Treatment for Corn Ground. 
Invariably, the farmers in this part of the country 
use, for their corn ground, a sod which had been 
mowed or pastured the previous year, and plow it just 
before planting in the spring. It occurred to me last 
summer, while 1 was mowing a piece of about 2)4 
A MODERN ORANGE COUNTY (N. Y.) FARM HOUSE. Fig. 118. See Last Week’s Issue for Comparison. 
to buckwheat, and be sure to go over the field before 
the buckwheat gets large enough to hide any stray 
plant of charlock, and pull every last one. Next 
spring, again sow to oats and peas, and then watch, 
and carefully pull every plant that comes up. If he 
do this, and follow the field with close watching for 
several years, he will, most likely, eradicate the char¬ 
lock ; but if he allow a single crop to ripen its seed, 
he will have an almost endless job. Seedsmen, who 
sell any but clean seed, ought to be responsible and 
liable for damages. J. s. woodward. 
KEEP THE GROUND STIRRED. 
One object of cultivation, is to kill the weeds. 
They draw nourishment from the soil, absorb the 
moisture, and thus rob the growing crop of both food 
and drink. It isn’t best to let them get a start; cul¬ 
tivate early, don’t let them get strong and defiant ! 
They may be uprooted and killed by the thousand 
when they first show above ground, with the same 
labor that will be required to kill them by the dozen 
later on. 
But destroying weeds is not the only object of cul¬ 
tivation, though some farmers seem to think so. The 
spring rains have filled the ground with water, but 
the hot sun and wind are rapidly drawing it up, and 
it is passing off into the atmosphere again. The 
growing plants need the moisture ; don’t let it 
escape. Shallow and frequent cultivation with a 
fine-tooth cultivator, will keep the soil fine and loose 
on top, and will prevent the evaporation of moisture. 
The past two summers here have been exceedingly 
not to have hoed them at all, for the cultivator had 
thrown some loose earth about the plants which he 
had removed. But that is the way, I find, that a 
great many hoe. The soil should be loosened and 
made fine about the plants, and what has been re¬ 
moved in hoeing out the weeds, should be replaced. 
We may almost defy the drought, if proper attention 
be given to cultivation. j. R. 
Burr Oak, Iowa. 
COMPLICATED CRIMSON CLOVER PROBLEM. 
Varying Results in 'Virginia. 
Last year, I sowed i0 acres of Crimson clover August 
3 and 6, on wheat stubble land ; the stubble was 
turned under, and 100 bushels or more of airslaked 
lime were harrowed in per acre. Then three pecks 
of buckwheat were drilled in per acre, and about 12 
pounds of clover seed were sown and covered with a 
plank drag. I also sowed about one-half bushel of 
wheat with the buckwheat per acre. The wheat did 
not catch much, the buckwheat made a fair crop, and 
the clover got a fair stand on part of the plot, but 
not so well on the other. The clover is best and 
stands thickest where the buckwheat did not grow so 
tall. I left a few small spots entirely destitute of 
buckwheat and wheat, and on them the stand of 
clover is better than anywhere else ; but I have a 
pretty fair stand on the entire field now, from 8 to 20 
inches high. I counted 35 heads from one stool, or 
one seed. 
I also sowed five acres on similar land (lime ex¬ 
cepted) on August 19, with one-half bushel of buck- 
acres on which the May frost had prevented the Timo¬ 
thy from heading, so that I did not get more than 
one load of hay from the whole piece, Why not plow 
it right away, and get it ready for this year’s corn 
crop ? Two things usually are in the way of plowing 
at such a time—hot, and dry weather. A soaking rain 
followed by an unusually cool spell, made the condi¬ 
tions for plowing with one's coat on, just right, and 
I had the piece ready and sown to Crimson clover on 
August 1. The clover quickly germinated, made a 
fine gi-owth, and covered the ground. 
It stood the winter well until in March, when upon 
the lowest spots, it began to heave out, and the whole 
plants and roots lay upon the ground. Upon the 
other parts, it was unhurt. Some parts of it were as 
thick as it could stand; taking it altogether, it was 
much more than half a crop. I commenced hauling 
manure upon it through the winter, got it about half 
covered, and finished the rest this spring. The part 
covered by manure in the winter, fared precisely the 
same as the part yet remaining uncovered. It is on 
creek bottom land, naturally good, but rather wet on 
some parts of it. May 12 and 13, I plowed it under; 
it was nearly all in bloom then, and I had a job of it. 
The clover and manure filled the furrows. May 15, 
I planted the corn with a hand planter, put it down to 
where the clover and manure ax-e, and are supposed to 
“ do the most good,'’ then went over it with a heavy 
field roller. Now what do you think of it ? If you 
can suggest a better way from start to finish, of pre¬ 
paring corn ground, let us hear it ? 
Let me suggest to John M. Jamison never to bother 
