Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 161, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1910 — Warning Against Another Pest— European Wild Onions. [ARTICLE]

Warning Against Another Pest— European Wild Onions.

D. W. Douglass, state entomologist, is preparing to issue a warning to farmers against European wild onions, which he found recently in a field near Lawrence. The onion is a weed of tha worst variety from the standpoint of damage to farm land, according to Mr. Douglass, it being almost impossible to eradicate it when once it has been started. The weed has had a start in the fields of the east, according to n report from the United States department of agriculture, and in some communities, especially in Maryland, farmers have been compelled to forego pasturing their cattle, since the weed not only makes the milk unfit for consumption, but taints the flesh of the animal, as well, rendering it unfit for butchering. # The weed is thought to have been imported by immigrants several yearn ago and to have spread gradually from the east. It resembles very much in appearance the native wild onion, except that the tops grow taller and stronger. It propagates itself by means of seeds, which, grow in a thick cluster at the top, and by bulbs, which form about the main bulb of the parent plant. Ordinary cultivation, as shown by experiments by the United States department of agriculture, will not prevent the growth of the weed. “The only way to stop it when it grtna a start,” said Mr. Douglass, “is to abandon the field for a year or two for crop purposes, and to fight the weed mercilessly with plows, harrows, fire and the like.” - 1~ < ■ f i ■ >■ ■