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Show LEGISLATION ON NOXIOUS WEEDS By JOHN E. BLAZZARD District Agricultural Inspector It is evident that the people of Washington County generally are ignorant ig-norant of the fact that there are weeds which have been legislated against and declared noxious; and as such are supposed sup-posed to be cleaned off the premises of any person firm or corporation, wherever found. Weeds in the state of Utah that have been so declared are: Whitetop, burrdock, cocklebur, whorled milkweed, Russian knapweed, Canadian thistle, puncture vine, bull thistle, and wild morning-glory. . The state board of agriculture is authorized au-thorized and empowered to designate and declare by regulation the injurious and noxious weeds of the state and every railroad, canal, ditch and water wa-ter company, and every firm and corporation cor-poration owning, controlling, or occupying oc-cupying lands in this state, and every county, municipality, irrigation or drainage district having control over streets, alleys, lanes, rights of way, or other lands shall cut or destroy all weeds declared and designated as noxious and injurious to vegetation before be-fore such weeds shall propagate or spread and whenever required by the state board of agriculture or the agricultural agri-cultural inspector or deputy. Washington county, while it has a very serious weed problem as concerns some of the more easily eradicated weeds, and one of our perennials, does not have the real serious weed condition condi-tion which exists in some of our less fortunate counties to the north. While this condition is not as serious as might be it is fast approaching a state where all persons must be on the alert for these noxious weeds and be prepared pre-pared to eradicate them wherever found. If our weeds are not put under un-der control now they will soon reach proportions quite as alarming as in some of the heavily infested counties. In looking over Washington county it is found that we have all of our noxious weeds started and growing within our county with the exception of Russian knapweed and Canadian thistle. Of all these weeds whitetop, while by no means common In our country, is the most serious one to be considered. We have at present only two small infestations of this weed south of the Bellvue Ridge while north of this barrier the condition is not so promising, several large patches of it already having a firm foothold. Burr-dock Burr-dock is not a common weed in our county and due to the nature of our climate and agricultural habits will probably never becne rTV iuinw-l..-" it does exist in considerable quantities it is not very troublesome at present. Cocklebur is by far the most common com-mon weed in our county, as everyone knows, and costs us more money than all the other weeds combined. It is due to this weed that our sheep men lose thousands of dollars each year in dockage on their wool. Whorled milkweed, milk-weed, or poison milkweed as it is commonly com-monly called, has already reached a point where the condition is very seri ous. It is widely scattered over the , county and kills thousands of dollars j worth of livestock each year. Puncture- i vine is not a common weed except in : one locality in the county. This com,- ; paratively new weed has secured a . foothold in Leeds ana is iast spied.u- , ing in every direction. It has the ; promise of becoming one of our most serious weeds due to the injury to the , mouth of any animal that may hap- ; pen to eat it. Bull thistle is not a common weed in the county and at present is not a serious pest to us. Wild morning glory needs no introduction introduc-tion to the gardener and farmer in this county. It is to be found in all sections of the county and hardly a block in any town, is free from it. It is fast taking its toll of the best land in the county and is actually crowding I the gardener off his property in some 1 localities. j . Little has ever been done in a sys-i sys-i tematic way to rid the county of these weeds but more is to be done and must be done if we are to ever cease paying pay-ing toll to them. Everyone should make a systematic endeavor to rid his premises prem-ises of weeds. The weed never sleeps. It is always 'on the job. We see a bad weed on i our land and decide it must be destroyed de-stroyed but we put it off a few days and go fishing. The weed continues to grow while we are away and matures seed for next year. We go for a pleasure pleas-ure trip but the weed stays home and continues to grow. We go to church or a social function. The weed has no social life but continues to grow. It may rain and we get under cover, but the weed grows just as well rain or shine. We start to work at sunup and quit at sundown but the weed grows day and night. The weed keeps consistently con-sistently on the job. Let us learn to fight it in its own way. Keep on the job. |