The Scientific American cyclopedia of formulas : partly based upon the twenty-eighth edition of Scientific American cyclopedia of receipts, notes and queries 15,000 formulas / edited by Albert A. Hopkins.
- Albert A. Hopkins
- Date:
- 1910
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The Scientific American cyclopedia of formulas : partly based upon the twenty-eighth edition of Scientific American cyclopedia of receipts, notes and queries 15,000 formulas / edited by Albert A. Hopkins. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![(Weeds) tie and other weeds during the fall and early spring, to furnish winter pastur¬ age, and then to be plowed under as a green fertilizer. A hoed crop following, if kept well cultivated, will clear out most of the remaining weeds. The plow¬ share used in these operations should be cut sharp, so as to cut a clean furrow, otherwise the roots are likely to be dragged and scattered about the field. Spiny Amaranth.—Like other annuals it may be subdued by preventing the production of seed. It would readily succumb to thorough cultivation, as it grows rather slowly at first and does not produce seed until midsummer or later. Mowing or grubbing up the plant before the flower spikes develop is proba¬ bly the best method of eradication in permanent pastures. Potato land and corn stubble may be plowed or thorough¬ ly disked after the crop is harvested and a winter crop sown which will keep down the weeds. Spiny Cocklehur.—The growth at first is slow and, as it needs light and room to develop into a robust plant, it may be choked down by any quick-growing crop that will crowd and shade it. In permanent pastures and waste places, where it flourishes best, it could doubtless be eradicated in time by mowing the plants about twice each year, in August and September, or by cutting them up with a hoe or spud in May and June. As the seeds often lie dormant in the thick-walled bur several years before ger¬ minating, it might require a like period to exterminate a patch by this method; but the plants would continually be grow¬ ing less in number, and the labor corre¬ spondingly lighter. Prickly Lettuce.—Sheep and sometimes cattle will eat the young prickly lettuce, and their services have been found very effective, especial^ in recently cleared land where thorough cultivation is im¬ possible. Repeatedly mowing the plants as they first begin to blossom will pre¬ vent seeding and eventually subdue them. Thorough cultivation with a hoed crop, bv means of which the seed in the soil may be induced to germinate, will be found most effective. The first plowing should be shallow, so as not to bury the seeds too deep. Under no circumstances should the mature seed-bearing plants be plowed under, as that would only fill the soil with seeds buried at different depths to be brought under conditions favorable for germination at intervals for several years. Mature plants should be mowed and burned before plowing. The seed (Weeds) appears as an impurity in clover, millet, and the heavier gross seeds, and the plant is doubtless most frequently intro¬ duced by this means. As the seed may be carried a long distance by the wind the plants must be cleared out of fence rows, waste land, and roadsides. Wild Carrot.—In permanent pasture the persistent mowing of the plants as often as the flower appears will even¬ tually destroy them. They will continue to branch out from the base after each cutting until finally exhausted, so that the first mowing will often appear to increase rather than diminish their num¬ bers. The root may be cut off with a spud some distance below the surface of the ground, a process that usually kills them at once. Pulling the plant by hand when the ground is wet. although somewhat la¬ borious, is one of the surest methods of eradication. Sheep eating the young plants will aid considerably in keeping them down. The wild carrot is seldom troublesome in cultivated fields, which in¬ dicates that even moderate cultivation will partly subdue it, and that thorough cultivation, accompanied by the destruc¬ tion of the weeds in waste places, would reduce it to comparative harmlessness. - Wild Oat.—The grain retains its vi¬ tality much longer than does the com¬ mon oat, and may remain buried in the soil several years without germinating. It germinates best when there is an abundance of moisture and the soil is warm. To clear the seed out of the soil, therefore, the land should be stirred when it is warm and as moist as will permit good cultivation. It is under¬ stood, of course, that cultivating the land when wet, especially in clay soils, is bad policy, and it is advocated in this case only for a special purpose. The clearing of the soil can be accomplished in con¬ junction with the cultivation of corn or root crops. Where winter wheat and rye may be grown profitably the land should be plowed as soon as possible after the spring crop is harvested, and har¬ rowed about once a week until time for sowing the wheat or rye. Oats should be left out of the rotation so far as may be until the Avild oats are subdued, as the latter growing among the cultivated oats are difficult to detect for removal, and after harvesting and thrashing it is practically impossible to separate com¬ pletely the two kinds of grain. In other grain crops the wild oat may be pulled or cut and removed by hand before ma¬ turity in the same manner as wild mus¬ tard or rye. Where it is very abundant, [58]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31361523_0072.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
