OCR Text |
Show PEST IN IRRIGATED COUNTHY Prof. Osborne of Idaho Station Offer Suggestion to Completely Eradicate Eradi-cate Wild Oat. One of our most pernicious pests to irrigated sections is the wild oat O. M. Osborne of the Idaho station afters af-ters a good suggestion when he says that the only course to pursue to completely com-pletely eradicate the wild oat is to proceed pro-ceed to bring every seed in the soil into germination as rapidly as possible possi-ble and then destroy the seedlings as soon as J.bey appear. Hence, plow the field shallow or disk as soon as the grain crop is removed. In about ten days, if the weather has been warm and damp, use the disk again, then harrow har-row every few days as the little seedlings seed-lings appear. If the autumn is dry and the seeds do not germinate readily read-ily it is well to roll the soil to bring up the water from below. Continue the process of harrowing as long as possible before the winter plowing, then plow the usual depth for winter. Get onto the land early in the spring as soon as the soil will permit and harrow again to kill the seedlings. Follow Fol-low with a cultivated crop such as beets, corn, potatoes, beans or cabbages. cab-bages. In case the land is too dry to plow immediately after removing a grain crop turn cattle or sheep into the field in order to eat down the seedlings. seed-lings. Otherwise many of the oats will go to seed before winter sets in. Summer Sum-mer fallowing as practiced in many sections is an excellent method of holding the wild oat in check, particularly particu-larly if cattle are allowed in the field once on a while to nip off the plants missed by the plow or harrow and to eat off the seedlings. Early winter rye or barley is an excellent crop to ' raise if the farmer does not wish to resort re-sort to a cultivated crop. As- a rule this can be cut before the wild oats ripen. |