Show goosefoot weed weakens disease of sugar beets A weed which Is good ns as well as bad has come to the attention of the united states department of agriculture it Is the nettle leaved goosefoot to all outward appearances this weed in a sugar beet field concentrates all effort on robbing the crop of its plant food rot but dr eubanks carsner of the office of sugar plants observed that it rally may compensate for its evil by weakening the virulence of the curly top disease of augir heets beets the disease Is less destructive to beets after it has first passed through the goosefoot C F lackey also of the office of sugar plants discovered that another weed tile the wild chickweed may restore the virulence of curly top disease if the disease passes from goosefoot to the chickweed neither weed Is a practical factor in curly top control in the sugar beet belt yet but plant pathologists think this relation of weeds to the virulence of diseases di senses of nearby cultivated crops discovered for the first time by these department of agriculture scientists may have a practical bearing on some crop diseases |