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Show THE OTEfTAH BASTS' FAB2IEB PAGE 5 Associated Beehive Seed Growers of The Uintah Basin Weeds are a continual '- menace and expense t o farming. In a seed growing community such as the Uinthe yield and injure the quality of our product so that we may have to take a low , .price or possibly not even be able to sell at all. It is quite possible that they will also increase the cost of producing, harvesting, and threshing the crop at the same time. If we kill the weeds the weed killing itself is a - ? m Annual weeds the weeds from the seed grow each season can usually be killed in the process of pre- that must , " The Gooding-Ketchabill to stain all imported red clover and alfalfa seed was signed by the President April 26 and becomes effective 30 days after this date. Under the provisions of this law all imported red clover and A small peralfalfa seed will be colored to identify its origin. of seed in each bag will be stained which is the centage only deemed sufficient for the purpose. All red clover and alfalfa seed that is unadapted for seeding in the United States will be stained red. All other imported red clover and alfalfa seed will be stained other colors, each country being assigned a certain color to identify the seed from that counSeed of these varieties from Canada also comes under the try. provisions of the law. The administration of the law will be under the United States Department of Agriculture. great expense. to crops, THE WEED PROBLEM PRESIDENT SIGNS BILL TO STAIN IMPORTED CLOVER AND ALFALFA tah Basin, weeds may reduce paring the land for seeding - May 15, 1926. 1 especially by fall ..plowing or summer fallowThe extra work necessary may be so beneficial in preparing ing. a better seed bed that it shows a good profit outside of the weed If the weeds are in alfalfa and killed by cultivation, the killing. ' cultivation may more than pay for itself in a better crop of hay or seed. Perhaps in general, annual weeds make us better farmers. Perennial weeds the weeds that do not have to start new from the seed each year present a very different problem. Every He knows 'farmer in the Basin is familiar with Poverty Weed. to The in a it. takes poverty weed what struggle it grow crops We can probably never hope to completely eradiis established. If you cate it until our Uintah Basin is all intensively fanned. will just run over in your mind the land you know of that is not producing on account of poverty weed, you will have some idea of a small part of the loss to the Basin because the poverty weed was not eradicated when it would have been easy. Thistle-Wi- ld Knapweed-Cana- da Morning Glory 'White White top, Russian knapweed, Canada thistle and wild morning glory are in much the same class as poverty weed as far as In fact ability to spread and being hard to kill are concerned. NOXIOUS are to in worse addition seem and he designated they they WEEDS in our own State of Utah and in several others. These weeds are now getting a foothold in the Basin and our problem is to decide, whether we shall get them now while they are confined to rather small areas or whether we shall allow them to overrun our country, ruin our alfalfa seed industry, and put us under the necessity of abandoning our farms or putting up a big fight every year with a draw as about the best we can hope for. We say that these weeds may ruin our alfalfa seed industry because white top, Russian knapweed, and Canada thistle each produce seed that cannot be very well separated from alfalfa seed. The presence of these weeds in our alfalfa would cause it to be discriminated against and might very possibly make it entirely unsaleable. Wild morning glory produces a seed about the size and weight of a grain of wheat. These weeds as they appear above the ground are very different. WHITE TOP is a member of the peppergrass branch of the musIt produces a thick cluster of small white flowers tard family. These flowers are followed by pods which are at the very top. hence the name because it has a white top all white when ripe and pods are forming right now. When blossom in is It 3ason. the pods and seed are mature, the pod is separated into two by a thin partition. Each compartment contains a brown ad about the size of a large sweet clover seed. The compartments re considerably larger than the seeds so that the seed can move bout and rattle against the parchmentlike walls of the compart-entso in some sections this weed is known as RATTLE BOX. ,ock will sometimes eat these ripened1 pods and scatter the seed in water. "oppings. The entire pod makes a nice float to be carried by RUSSIAN KNAPWEED and CANADA THISTLE are closely reThis ted members of the Thistle family or the COMPOSITAE. made one flower up of ;rd COMPOSITAE means plants having chance a many produce good Many flowers given my flowers. Top-Russ- ian com-artmen- ts K J . seeds and in order to get good distribution the seeds of the Knapweed and Canada thistle have a downy feather or sail to carry them in the wind as you have seen dandelion seed travel. Both these weeds have rather long moderately thick leaves with indented edges. Both are rather grayish in color and both have purplish tassels of Both usually get flowers. The about two feet tall. knapweed has no thorns at all. The Canada thistle has sharp thorns at every point of every leaf. So far as we know they are never intentionally eaten by animals. Most of our readers are acquainted ROOT-STOCK- S, root-stoc- root-stock- root-stoc- k, the surface are cut off at the rootstock again, the root-stoc- k must send up more new ones and still further exhaust its supply of stored food, so that the proposition of killing the weeds settles down to be merely a question of how to cut off the shoots and how many times and how often the job must be repeated. It is possible, too, that the creepers may become dormant and wait for a more favorable season but if the land is irrigated from time to time so that the stored starch can be converted into sugar, etc., they just have to try to grow. Most Basin farmers have had some experience in killing out alfalfa. They know that if alfalfa is plowed deep, some of the feeders remain attached to the crown and that it will put out new Oil the other hand they have found that feeders and grow again. if alfalfa is plowed just deep enough to cut the crown off below the base, the plants will be killed. This same treatment, with repetitions and some variation should be effective on white top, Russian knapweed, Canada thistle, and wild morning glory. Shallow plowing to cut off the shoots above the creeper should get those shoots. Then the ground should be worked down and levelled so that the next set .of shoots must -- come up through as much soil as possible. Then another plowing (CONTINUED ON PAGE SEVEN.) J. G. Peppard Seed Company, Duchesne with WILD MORNING GLORY. This morning glory is a rather close relative of the sweet potato, has creeping vines that cover the ground in a dense mat and usually smother out other plants. The leaves are approximately heart shaped with smooth edges. The flowers are white. So much for what you can see above ground. Below the surface there is a great similarity among all these weeds. All of them have CREEPING spreading below the surface of the soil, in very much the same manner as a grapevine allowed k to lie on the ground would spread over the surface. The grows just as the grapevine would, producing buds about evThese buds develop into shoots that come up or roots ery so far. that eo down very much the same as they would on the grapevine. is not merely a branch or trunk from But the creeping root-stoc- k which new snoots may come to the surface. It is also a storehouse for surplus food material in much the same way that a sweet potato is, although fortunately, not so much so. As you know all green plants obtain the greater part of their living from the air through their leaves. These leaves absorb carbon dioxide from the air and through some chemical processes that take place in the presence of sunlight and chlorophyll (the green coloring of plants) they combine it with water and minerals taken from the soil by the roots into sugars, starches, and other food proThe sugars are soluble and are moved about the plant ducts. s, and are wherever needed or they go to the roots or stored in the form of starch for future needs. If we investigate a little further we find that these creepers are usually from three to eight inches below the surface of the soil. Consequently, if the shoots are all cut off or pulled off new shoots must siart from where they join the use and stored food supply in getting the itself the creeper up to the surface when they can begin to manufacture food for themselves and the parent plant. If these new shoots just as they reach Roosevelt Vernal ig I lg i |
