The Bulletins of this Station are sent free to all newspapers in the State and to such individuals interested in farming as may request them. Address all applications to the Director, East Lansing, Michigan.

MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION

STATION COUNCIL

ADVISORY AND ASSISTANT STAFF.

SUB-STATIONS.

• Chatham, Alger County, 160 acres deeded—Leo M. Geismar in charge.
• Grayling, Crawford County, 80 acres deeded.
• South Haven, Van Buren County, 10 acres rented; 5 acres deeded—Frank A. Wilkin in charge.
  
  
  
  

The designer of this bulletin first had in mind something of the sort for the use of his students, not only the undergraduates, but others living on farms, or teaching in Michigan and elsewhere. Whoever grows seeds to sell, or buys seeds to sow, should be benefited by consulting the illustrations which are unsurpassed for accuracy by anything in this country. They were all made by Mr. F. H. Hillman. A hand lens costing from twenty cents to a dollar is almost indispensable in examining our seeds. The brief descriptions are necessarily made by using definite scientific terms, which are explained in a glossary at the close of the work. A few weeds are not illustrated, for the reason that the plants have ceased to produce seeds, such as the horse radish, and some of them are not conspicuously bad. Not far from half the illustrations are made from small seed-like fruits, likely to be mistaken for seeds, such as are produced by dandelions, burdocks, narrow-leaved dock, all grasses. Cuts of seeds of several clovers are inserted that students may learn to distinguished them from weeds too often mixed with them.

No apology is offered for making use of the decimal scale instead of the cumbersome antiquated English scale, which fortunately is gradually growing out of use. In the back part of the bulletin are duplicate copies of the decimal scale that any one can cut out and use for measuring.

For copies of the following figures some time ago prepared by Mr. Hillman, we are indebted to the authorities of the Agricultural College, of Reno, Nevada: 7, 11, 12, 16, 17, 23, 24, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 46, 55, 56, 58, 63, 68, 69, 71, 74, 75, 84, 86, 87, 91, 92, 95, 97, 98, 99, 108, 110, 116, 125, 130, 135, 138, 140, 144, 146, 152, 153, 158, 159, 172, 173, 174, 175, 178, 179, 181, 182, 185, 187, 189, 190, 191, 199, 203, 205, 212, 214, 215.

"A weed is any useless or troublesome plant."

"A plant out of place or growing where it is not wanted."

"Tobacco."

"A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered."—Emerson.

Weeds everywhere; they thrive in the cornfield, they choke wheat in the field, they annoy the gardner, they thrive in the meadow, they spring up by the roadside, they encroach on the swamp, they damage the fleeces of sheep. The rapid increase in the number and variety of weeds should cause alarm.

DISADVANTAGES OF WEEDS.

1. They rob cultivated plants of nutriment.

2. They injure crops by crowding and shading.

3. They retard the work of harvesting grain by increasing the draft and by extra wear of machinery. (Bindweed, thistles, red root.)

4. They retard the drying of grain and hay.

5. They increase the labor of threshing, and make cleaning of seed difficult.

6. They damage the quality of flour, sometimes making it nearly worthless. (Allium vineale L.)

7. Most of them are of little value as food for domestic animals.

8. Some weeds injure stock by means of barbed awns. (Squirrel tail grass, wild oats, porcupine grass.)

9. Some of them injure wool and disfigure the tails of cattle, the manes and tails of horses. (Burdock, cocklebur, houndstongue.)

10. A few make "Hair balls" in the stomachs of horses. (Rabbit-foot clover, crimson clover.)

11. Some injure the quality of dairy products. (Leeks, wild onions.)

12. Penny cress, and probably others, when eaten by animals, injure the taste of meat.

13. Poison hemlock, spotted cowbane and Jamestown weed are very poisonous.

14. Many weeds interfere with a rotation of crops.

15. All weeds damage the appearance of a farm and render it less valuable. (Quack-grass, Canada thistle, plantains.)

SOME SMALL BENEFITS.

1. They are of some use in the world to induce more frequent and more thorough cultivation, which benefits crops.

2. The new arrival of a weed of first rank stimulates watchfulness. (Russian thistle.)

3. In occupying the soil after a crop has been removed they prevent the loss of fertility by shading the ground.

4. Weeds plowed under add some humus and fertility to the soil, though in a very much less degree than clover or cow peas.

5. Some of them furnish food for birds in winter.

WHAT ENABLES A PLANT TO BECOME A WEED.

1. Sometimes by producing an enormous number of weeds. (A large plant of purslane, 1,250,000 seeds; a patch of daisy fleabane, 3,000 to a square inch.)

2. In other cases by the great vitality of their seeds. Shepherd's purse, mustard, purslane, pigeon-grass, pigweeds, pepper-grass, May weed, evening primrose, smart weed, narrow-leaved dock, two chick-weeds survive when buried in the soil thirty years at least, as I have found by actual test.

3. In each prickly fruit of a cocklebur there are two seeds, only one of which grows the first year, the other surviving to grow the second year.

4. Some are very succulent, and ripen seeds even when pulled. (Purslane.)

5. Often by ripening and scattering seeds before the cultivated crop is mature. (Red root, fleabane.)

6. Sometimes by ripening seeds at the time of harvesting a crop, when all are harvested together. (Chess, cockle.)

7. Some seeds are difficult to separate from seeds of the crop cultivated. (Sorrel, mustard, narrow-leaved plantain in seeds of red clover and alfalfa.)

8. Some are very small and escape notice. (Mullein, fleabane.)

9. Some plants go to seed long before suspected, as no showy flowers announce the time of bloom. (Pigweeds.)

10. In a few cases the plants break loose from the soil when mature and become tumble-weeds. (Some pigweeds, Russian thistle.)

11. Some seeds and seed-like fruits are furnished each with a balloon, or a sail, or with grappling hooks. (Dandelion, sticktights, burdock.)

12. Some remain with the dead plant long into winter, and when torn off by the wind or by birds, drift for long distances on the snow, often from one farm to another. (Pigweeds.)

13. Some have creeping root-stocks or tubers. (Quack-grass, nut-grass.)

14. Some defend themselves with forks and bayonets. (Thistles.)

15. Most of them are disagreeable in taste or odor, so that domestic animals leave them to occupy the ground and multiply. (Jamestown weed, stink grass, milk weed.)

16. Plants with stout roots are sometimes passed over by the harrow or cultivator.

HOW ARE WEEDS INTRODUCED AND HOW ARE THEY SPREAD?

1. By live stock, carried in the hair or fleece or carried by the feet; in some instances passing alive with the excrement.

2. By unground feed-stuff purchased.

3. By adhering to the insides of sacks where they were placed with grain.

4. In barnyard manure drawn from town.

5. In the packing of trees, crockery, baled hay and straw.

6. By wagons, sleighs, threshing machines.

7. Sometimes by plows, cultivators and harrows.

8. By railway trains passing through or near a farm.

9. By ballast of boats at wharves.

10. By wool-waste at factories.

11. By birds, squirrels, and mice.

12. By water of brooks, rivers, by washing rains and by irrigating ditches.

13. By the wind aided by little wings or down, or by drifting on the snow.

14. By dropping seeds to the ground from extending branches and repeating the process.

15. By creeping root-stocks, as June grass, quack-grass and toad-flax.

16. By piercing potatoes, carrots, etc., quack-grass, June grass, Bermuda grass are sometimes carried to other fields or farms where the tubers and roots are planted.

17. A farmer buys clover seeds or grass seeds that were grown in some state that never before grew seeds that went onto his farm and thus he may get some new weeds. Seeds of alfalfa or some other crop bring new kinds of weeds, especially those of dodder. As every kind of weed goes onto a farm to stay there it follows that as a country becomes older the greater the number of kinds of weeds. As a rule each farm is annually getting more sorts of weeds, and as each farmer is cultivating weeds, they are more freely distributed in every field and along every roadside and by exchanging they are carried to neighboring and distant farms.

A great many farmers buy and sow whatever the merchant offers them under the name mentioned. For example, the college has a sample of something called clover seed, sold by a dealer in this state. It contains about 40 per cent of narrow-leaved plantain.

WHERE CERTAIN WEEDS ARE TROUBLESOME.

To begin with, years and years ago no new farm in the wilderness of Michigan contained more than twenty to thirty-five kinds of weeds, as there were not more than thirty-five sorts in the entire state, while at present there are not far from 250 kinds. A large majority of weeds hail from older countries, more especially from Europe.

There are a few weeds, like Canada thistle and quack-grass, that may infest any crop of farm or garden, but in most cases, whether to call a weed very bad depends on the nature of the crop grown, the size of the weed-seeds and their time of ripening.

Some weeds have a very wide distribution, thriving all around the world in temperate climates, while others are more limited in range; some thrive only in dry, thin, sandy soil and others in wet soils. To some extent the presence of a few weed-seeds is almost as objectionable when once on the farm, as though there were more, because these few may thrive and seed freely.

In many respects the lists of weeds for New Jersey is different from the list in Michigan, while half the weeds of Nevada or Oregon are not known in our state.

Chess, cockle, red root and rye are liable to be troublesome in fields of winter wheat, because the seeds are more or less difficult to separate from this grain and for the reason that they require a portion of two years to come to maturity.

Meadows and pastures, especially where the land is not fertile, abound in weeds that require two years or more to produce seeds, such as narrow-leaved dock, bitter dock, bull thistle, carrot, teasel, two kinds of mulleins, night-flowering catchfly, evening primrose, several kinds of fleabane, ox-eye daisy, orange hawkweed, two or three kinds of plantain, Canada thistle, hound's tongue, stick seed, sow thistle, horse nettle, buttercups, toad flax, silvery cinquefoil, and many more, not excluding some annuals, like crab-grass, tickle grass, pigeon grasses. As crops of corn, potatoes, beans, turnips, beets and squashes are ready to harvest at the close of one growing season they are molested more or less by pigeon grasses, several pigweeds, purslane, crab-grass, barnyard grass, tickle grass and a number of others.

In 1897 some seventy-five lots of timothy seeds were examined and the following list of twenty-four species of weeds were found. Doubtless other weeds may still be found in other lots of timothy seed. No sample was entirely free from weeds. Pepper grass was most common, next followed tumble weed and then shepherd's purse:

• Amaranthus graecizans, Tumble weed.
• Amaranthus retroflexus, Rough pigweed.
• Anthemis Cotula, May weed.
• Brassica arvensis, Charlock. Brassica nigra, Black mustard.
• Bursa Bursa-pastoris, Shepherd's purse.
• Carduus arvensis, Canada thistle.
• Carex straminea. A kind of sedge.
• Chenopodium album, Pigweed.
• Chenopodium filicifolium, Another kind of pigweed.
• Lactuca Canadensis, Wild Lettuce.
• Lepidium Virginicum, Wild Pepper-grass.
• Onagra biennis, Evening primrose.
• Panicum capillare, Hair grass, tickle grass.
• Plantago lanceolata, Narrow-leaved plantain.
• Plantago Rugelii, Rugel's Plantain, one of the broad-leaved plantains.
• Poa compressa, Flat-stemmed poa, wire grass.
• Potentilla Monspeliensis, Rough cinquefoil.
• Prunella vulgaris, Self-heal.
• Rumex Acetocella, Field or sheep sorrel.
• Sisymbrium officinale, Hedge mustard.
• Verbena angustifolia, Narrow-leaved vervain.
• Verbena hastata, Blue vervain.
• Verbena urticifolia, White vervain.

In examining some 130 lots of clover seeds as found in the market during 1897, thirty-two kinds of weed seeds were found. Sheep sorrel was most common, next to this yellow or bitter dock and green foxtail. Only three samples of clover seed was free from weeds, but possibly some weeds might have been seen if larger quantities had been looked over.

During the year 1908, eleven years later, 47 kinds of weed seeds were found in 122 lots of seed of red clover, a gain of nearly 50 per cent.

During three months from January 1, 1910, in examining 450 lots of seeds of grasses, clovers and alfalfas, besides large numbers of common weeds that we know, were 74 kinds not known to the writer. Of these 74 kinds, probably some will never become weeds of any account. Some of these came with alfalfa from Montana and some were importations from Europe and elsewhere.

Parasitic fungi rank as weeds; such as rusts and smuts of wheat, oats, corn; apple scab, black knot of plum, brown rot of cherry, anthracnose of beans.

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 threshing 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 grass 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 grass and toad flax, while different treatment is best for narrow-leaved dock; and still a different mode of attack may be adopted for crab grass and purslane.

Weeds are annuals, as pigweeds, crab grass, purslane; biennials as bull thistle and mulleins; perennials, like quack grass, 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.

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 grasses, such as rye, timothy, red top. To mature spores, it must pass to another stage requiring six months or more.

GRASS FAMILY. GRAMINEAE.

Quack-Grass. Couch-Grass. 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.

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.

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.

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.

Smooth Brome-grass. 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.

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.

Barren Brome Grass. 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.

Sand-Bur. Bur-Grass. 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, prickles, 2–5 mm. long, making a disagreeable and formidable bur, often common on sandy land. Native of this country.

Bermuda Grass. Cynodon Dactylon L., Pers., (Capriola Dactylon (L.) Kuntze). Floral glume enclosing the grain, smooth, light colored, oval to half-oval, 1.5 to 2 mm. long, in cross section with two long sides and a short side half as long; grain light brown, obovate to oval, a small nipple at the larger end.

The plant seeds in hot countries but not in cool, temperate regions; spreading chiefly by coarse, hard rootstocks. Introduced.

Small Crab-Grass. Digitaria humifusa Pers. Panicum lineare Kroach. Syntherisma linearis (Kroch.) Nash. Spikelets in the rough, before severe rubbing, ovoid or oblong, flattened, 2 mm. long, first glume minute, second and third as long as the spikelet, soft with very short hairs, one of them 3-nerved, the other 5-nerved; floret after severe rubbing, brown to black, smooth, floral glume of the rounded side curving over the edges below covering with their edges about two-thirds of the palea. Introduced from Europe; becoming troublesome on thin lawns.

Large Crab-Grass. Finger Grass. Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop. Panicum sanguinale L. Syntherisma (L.) Nash. Spikelets before severe rubbing, oblong, acute, 2.5–3.5 mm. long, first glume on flattened side minute, second on rounded side about half as long as the spikelet, pubescent or nearly smooth, third glume more or less pubescent, 5–7-nerved; floret, after severe rubbing, smooth, edges of floral glume thin. Introduced from Europe. Roots very tough and coming from the lower joints.

Barnyard Grass. Echinochloa Crus-galli (L.) Beauv. Panicum Crus-galli L. Florets oval, white, yellowish gray or brown, 2.4–3 mm. long, plano-convex, glume on the convex side, highly polished, three obscure longitudinal nerves. Native of this country.

Yard-Grass. Wire-Grass. Eleusine Indica (L.) Gaertn. Florets light lead color or brown before threshing or much rubbing; grain dark, reddish brown, 1.2–1.4 mm., ovoid with the base abruptly pointed, 3 sided, the corners rounded, a vertical groove along one side; seen from the back with the groove side down and base toward the observer, starting from an oval spot near the base, 10–15 ridges on each side, extend downward and forward. Introduced from some warmer region of the Old World.

Stink-Grass. Eragrostis megastachya (Kœler) Link. Eragrostis major Host. Grain orange red or wine color .4-.6 mm. long. Broad oval to nearly circular, very slightly flattened, extremities slightly pointed, embryo within one edge near the base, a fine network of dark lines evident under a good lens. Introduced from Europe.

Squirrel-tail Grass. Hordeum jubatum L. Spikelets in clusters of three, central one only fertile, 5 mm. long, containing a grain adhering to the floral glume and palea, the other two abortive, seven awns in these three spikelets, 4–6 cm. long, four others less than 1 cm. long; awns and fragment of rachis holding the cluster of spikelets together, all barbed upward, making them troublesome for fleeces of sheep and the mouths of animals eating them. Native of this country and widely distributed.

Old Witch Grass. Tickle Grass. A Tumble-Weed. Panicum capillare L. Florets flattened, elliptical, apex abruptly pointed, about 1.5 mm. long, highly polished, leaden gray, lighter at the extremities and along the edges of the glume, five slender light colored nerves join the extremities passing vertically over the glume, two light nerves on the palea. Native to this country.

Tall Smooth Panicum. Switch Grass. Panicum virgatum L. Achene surrounded by two persistent shining pieces, the floret; floral glume hard, light brown, oval or ovate-lanceolate 2.5–3.1 mm. long. Apex obtusely pointed. Seldom troublesome, widely distributed.

Low Spear-Grass. Poa annua L. Florets straw-colored, 2.8–3.1 mm. long, apex smooth, lower half of keel and the base of lateral nerves, having numerous soft hairs. A low annual grass, introduced from Europe.

Flat stemmed Poa. Wire Grass. Canadian Blue Grass. Poa compressa L. Florets lance-obovate, 2–2.5 mm. long, closely resembling those of Poa pratensis, which see.

Palea abruptly acute. If well rubbed after threshing, the floret is nearly smooth, otherwise it contains on the lower half numerous webby hairs. Grain reddish brown, both ends pointed, 1–1.4 mm. long. Seldom sown purposely. Sometimes used to adulterate Poa pratensis. In early days this grass was called blue grass by people of New England and New York State. Introduced from Europe.

June Grass. Kentucky Blue Grass. Poa pratensis L. Florets ovate-lanceolate, acute 3–4 mm. long, with three equal sides when seen in transverse section, nearly smooth, if severely rubbed in threshing, otherwise the floral glume is thickly webbed at the base; palea acuminate, grain light brown, elliptical, both ends usually pointed 1.2–1.4 mm. long, in cross sections with three equal sides, one of which has a shallow vertical groove. Compare with Poa compressa. Introduced from Europe.

Rye. Secale cereale L. Grain light brown, 6–8 mm. long, elliptical, base acute, apex obtuse and rounded, in cross section the back somewhat acutely rounded, the opposite side with a narrow vertical groove, surface more or less irregularly wrinkled. Introduced from Europe. A bad weed in wheat fields.

Pigeon-Grass. Yellow Foxtail. Setaria glauca (L.) Beauv. Chaetochloa glauca (L.) Scrib. Spikelets light to dark brown, 2.5–3 mm. long; after threshing or much rubbing consisting of each a grain and two firm coverings, known as a floral glume which covers the sides of the somewhat depressed palea, oval, apex slightly 3-toothed, rounded side strongly arched, somewhat V-shaped, roughened crosswise by prominent fine more or less branching ridges; ridges of palea on concave side less prominent. Introduced from Europe. Very common in hoed annual crops.

Green Foxtail. Green Pigeon Grass. Setaria viridis (L.) Beauv. Chaetochloa viridis (L.) Nash. Spikelets, light to dark brown mottled, 2–2.3 mm. long, after threshing or much rubbing consisting of the grain and two firm coverings, the rounded one known as a floral glume which covers the edges of the flattened side, oval, the surface granular and very faintly striate, lengthwise and ridged crosswise. Much resembling Hungarian grass. Introduced from Europe. Found with yellow foxtail.

Porcupine Grass. Stipa spartea Trin. Grain inclosed in the floral glume, light brown, 18 mm. long, clothed on the lower half with short brown hairs slanting upward, bearing at the base a sharp, hard, curved beak, when dry the attached awn is twisted for 6 cm. and straight and bent at right angles about 6 cm. When moistened, the awn untwists more or less; twisting and untwisting the beards hold what the beak pierces, thus making it a formidable weapon to enter the skins of sheep, goats and dogs. Fortunately it is seldom abundant. Sandy land Michigan and westward.

SEDGE FAMILY. CYPERACEAE.

Yellow Nut-Grass. Cyperus esculentus L. This is a species of sedge, and so far as I have examined, produces no seeds, perhaps having lost that method of reproduction, as it acquired the habit of spreading by tubers here illustrated. In moist soil, sometimes a troublesome weed.