| OCR Text |
Show Cultivation of Noxious Weeds L. A. CLARK Clean cultivation of noxious weeds under most conditions is now recommended by all students of weed control. Only in cases where cultivation is most impractical is spraying being done. Ditch banks, road ways and other inaccessible places are to be sprayed this year. Sprays and controlling agents have not been very successful in most cases. For various reasons rea-sons the sprays known to us have not returned what we have expected. expect-ed. Sprays will be considered more in detail in the following article. Mention is made at this time only to stress the importance of clean cultivation. There is a great divestity of opinion opin-ion on how often clean cultivation should be applied on morning glory or the other perennial weeds. It is generally conceded that a season of faithful cultivation will kill perennial per-ennial weeds. A number of farmers farm-ers which have cultivated for one season wall . certainly maintain that such an idea is false. From rather closely cheeked tests where clean cultivation has been consistantly applied ap-plied a good percentage of kill has been obtained in one season. The remaining plants had been weakened weak-ened to the extent that control the next season was accomplished with less effort. Whether it takes more than one or two seasons will depend de-pend upon the conditions under which the plant grows. We can be confident that cultivation frequent enough to keep the leaves from making mak-ing food will gradually exhaust the food materials stored in the roots. As the plant is cut off under ground new shoots arise. Until these new shoots are above ground and green they are entire dependent upon feed from the underground roots. Cultivation will exhaust those roots if done consistently. If on the other hand the leaves are allowed to form and turn green the roots can receive food which means that the fight can go on with the weed holding its own. It would not be wise to say how often we;ds should receive the type of cultivation mentioned. If cultivation is sufficiently often to keep the weeds below the surface at all times more than likely you will be winning the fight in the least amount of time. Next article will consider sprays, covers and other types of control : measures which have been tried. |
