Seeds of Michigan Weeds Part 2

SOME MEANS FOR PREVENTING THE INTRODUCTION OF WEEDS AND A FEW RULES FOR THEIR EXTERMINATION.

1. The right kind of a man, who will carefully observe and study the kinds of weeds and their habits, fighting each to the best advantage, i.

e. with method.

2. See that all seeds purchased or grown at home for seed are free from seeds of weeds. Although often heard, these words are too little heeded.

3. See that thres.h.i.+ng machines, hay racks, grain bags from other farms are well cleaned before used on the farm.

4. Cook or grind screenings and burn chaff when certain weeds are suspected.

5. Send seeds to the Agricultural College, East Lansing, for identification, unless they are known to be harmless.

6. Strive to prevent weeds from ripening seeds. This is especially important late in the season in case of all pigweeds, purslane and others where the flowers are very small and are liable to be overlooked and the seeds ripen before their presence is suspected.

7. For meadow or pasture make the soil very fertile, as most weeds will then be killed or crowded by the better gra.s.s and become of little account.

8. Modify the rotation of crops with reference to killing the weeds.

9. Make a specialty of hoed or cultivated crops.

10. Make soiling crops a prominent feature in certain fields.

11. Smother weeds with quick growing and thickly seeded crops, like red clover or rye or buckwheat.

12. Keep some crops growing on the land from early spring till late autumn,--double cropping, i. e., two cultivated crops in one year for barn and cellar instead of one for use and one of weeds.

13. Cultivate thoroughly after a crop is removed.

14. Clean up and avoid leaving any vacant or out of the way places for breeding ground.

15. Where practicable, remove fences and cultivate to the gutters of the highway.

16. Keep some sheep.

17. When once begun, continue the work thoroughly from year to year, giving no quarter to weeds. This is the easiest in the long run and the royal way.

18. Where hand labor is employed, it is far less expensive and much easier to keep weeds down by raking or hoeing once a week than by going over the ground much less frequently.

The habits of a weed determine to a great extent the best mode of fighting it. Certain remedies suggest themselves for creeping perennials, like quack gra.s.s and toad flax, while different treatment is best for narrow-leaved dock; and still a different mode of attack may be adopted for crab gra.s.s and purslane.

Weeds are annuals, as pigweeds, crab gra.s.s, purslane; biennials as bull thistle and mulleins; perennials, like quack gra.s.s, Canada thistle, ox-eye Daisy.

Will it pay? The annual cost of successfully fighting a weedy farm of 100 acres in Ontario has been found to be about $75. Good cultivation in the long run pays a greater profit than slipshod culture. It not only kills the weeds, but keeps the soil in condition for securing good crops. It conserves moisture.

Perennial plants cannot gain any if the green leaves are not allowed to appear. The nourishment stored in the root stocks underground will aid the plant to send up slender leaves and if these remain, the plants gain and recruit, but if the leaves start underground and are cut off before coming to the light, these root stocks are drawn on again to furnish food to start more leaves and thus, in time become exhausted.

SEEDS OF MICHIGAN WEEDS.

ASCOMYCETES.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 1.]

=Ergot.= _Claviceps purpurea._ This is a poisonous fungus, not a seed, mentioned here because it is frequently found as an outgrowth of the grain of many gra.s.ses, such as rye, timothy, red top. To mature spores, it must pa.s.s to another stage requiring six months or more.

GRa.s.s FAMILY. GRAMINEAE.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 2.]

=Quack-Gra.s.s. Couch-Gra.s.s.= _Agropyron repens_ (L.) Beauv. Florets about 1 cm. long, 5-nerved at the short-awned apex: grain seldom produced and still less frequently found apart from the floral glume and palea, linear, about 4 mm. long, base abruptly acute, apex rounded, rounded on the back or outside, inside concave. Our worst weed. Introduced from Europe.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 3.]

=Wild Oat.= _Avena fauta_ L. Freed from chaff the floral glume is firm, rough, brown, thinly hairy, about 15 mm. long, awn from near the middle 2-4 cm. long with several firm twists, abruptly bent near the middle, the true grain seldom separated from the firmer floral glume. A bad weed in Oregon and California, seldom seen in Michigan.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 4.]

=Field Chess.= _Bromus arvensis_ (L.) Not often seen in this country; floral glume 6-7 mm. long bearing an awn rather longer; grain much like that of _B. secalinus_ which see. Introduced from Europe.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 5.]

=Soft Chess.= _Bromus hordeaceus_ L. (_Bromus mollis_). Floral glume extending beyond the grain, 5-7 nerved, 6-9 mm. long, grain rounded on the back, shape of a shallow boat, 6.5 mm. long, palea thin with comb-like teeth on the margins. Waste places, thin meadows. Introduced from Europe.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 6.]

=Smooth Brome-gra.s.s.= _Bromus racemosus_ L. Florets about 9 mm. long, awn 6-10 mm. long; longer, softer, thinner, with longer awn than found in florets of _B. secalinus_ which see. Not often seen in this country.

Introduced from Europe.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 7.]

=Chess Cheat.= _Bromus secalinus_ L. Florets swollen a little above the middle, the floral glume rounded on the back, obscurely 7-nerved, 6-7 mm. long, an awn 3-4 mm. long, more or less; palea covering the concave side, each edge bearing a single row of stiff hairs; glume and palea closely adhering to the grain. Introduced from Europe. A weed in wheat fields.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 8.]

=Barren Brome Gra.s.s.= _Bromus sterilis_ L. Floral glume minutely roughened, adhering to the grain; 5-7 nerved; 11-15 mm. long; compressed; concave in section. Introduced from Europe, becoming common in the state.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 9.]

=Sand-Bur. Bur-Gra.s.s.= _Cenchrus tribuloides_ L. Spikelets consisting of the grain and its coverings, broad oval, somewhat flattened, about 7 mm.

long, thinly covered by stiff, straight, barbed, p.r.i.c.kles, 2-5 mm.

long, making a disagreeable and formidable bur, often common on sandy land. Native of this country.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 10.]