The Levelland Daily Sun News (Levelland, Tex.), Vol. 18, No. 200, Ed. 1 Friday, April 29, 1960 Page: 7 of 8
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FRIDAY, APRIL 29,1960 THI UVELLAND DAILY SUN NEWS, Ltwlbnd, Texas
S*ct!onS—FAOITHm
Daily Sun News
REVl EVi W
Dream of a lawn Utopia shattered-crab grass is here to stay
By EARL ARONSON
AP Newsf nature*
*H* MAN IN the store spoke
with an authoritative air as he
predicted this gardner’s Utopia:
“In 10 years, there will be no
crab grass and grasses will be
developed to any desired height
and stay there.”
As a clincher, he proclaimed
there were plenty of turf experts
who should be willing to be quoted
along this line. | came a summer vision.
We went heme. As we looked The power mower was rusting
out over the lawn and garden there | in a corner, and I was reclining
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comfortably in the sun. The lawn
resembled a codntry club green
and there wasn’t a sign of crab
grass.
COULD THE man be right? We
checked the experts. “Have you
been smoking ragwood” one ask-
ed.
All concurred that tremendous
strides had been made in crab-
grass control. They also said steps
had been made toward controlling
the growth of grass with chemicals
but that if ever the pipe dream was
to come true, it would mean re-
placing the lawn fnower with a
power sprayer.
Director Robert W. Schery of
The Lawn Institute, Marysville,
Ohio said he “hated to be the one
to stomp on joyous speculation but
nature is not so easily conquered
as your informant seems to im-
ply.”
LETS HAVE done with crahgrass
first.
“Crabgrass,” Dr. Schery holds,
“is a prolific, tenacious and ubiqui-
tous species — impossible to stamp
out everywhere.
“Even were it possible to kill
every crabgrass plant for one, two
three or more years, there still
would be crabgrass seeds in the
soil, since this critter is notorious
for having only a few per cent of
its seeds sprout each year — then
others as these mature, or are turn-
ed over in the heaving of top-
soil.”
Crabgrass need not be much of
a problem, he added, what with
excellent p re-emergent and post
grass seed and more sophistication
in lawn tending.
He expects it will be a lesser
problem than control of some of
the “perennial invaders. . .we are
planting in cheep seed mixtures
at the moment other than hand-
plucking or completely sterilizing
the soil before replanting the
lawn."
CARTER M. Harrison of Mich-
igan State University said control
measures were doing quite well
and new chemicals were bound-to
come along. “The real problem,”
he added, “is to get everyone to
use the chemicals and use them
according to directions.”
Nurseryman David Burpee of
Pennsylvania expressed doubt that
complete eradication of crabgrass
was possible unless tackled on a
very wide basis.
Richard 3. Stadtherr of the Uni-
versity of Minnesota said many
waste areas never would be treat-
ed and could be a sourxfe to re-in-
fect treated areas.
“As with many other weeds,” he
said, “the problem of periodic
chemical control could reduce crab-
grass as a lawn problem, but there
always will be plants in some un-
treated areas to produce seeds to
perpetuate the species.”
“THE NEED for repeated treat-
ments, the cost of the mateials,
ments, the cost of the material*
application still leaves much to be
desired,” said Prof. John F. Corn-
man of Cornell University's State
College of Agriculture.
“Past experience shows that per-
formance of such chemicals varies
from year to year and under dif-
ferent circumstances. Even if one
of the chemicals now available is
effective under all weather condi-
tions and in all climates, it would
become a fantastically expensive
task to eradicate crabgrass except
in specialized areas of particular
value.”
No really informed person has
dandelions in his lawn anymore,
Comman observed, thanks to 4-
4D (“a sure killer”), yet no on*
can think that dandelions have
been eradicated.
NOW ABOUT control of the
growth of grass?
Burpee sees no liklihood of con-
trol and doesn’t feel it would be
desirable “because it is the mow-
ing and the induction of new
growth that keeps the lawn green.”
Stadherr told of researc ... in
which maleic hydrazide was used
to reduce mowing. He said it was
a failure. “It seems as though the
root systems were reduced as well
as the tops which tended to make
the grass plants weak and weeds
infiltrated' these lawns.”
V. T. Stoutemyer of the Univer-
sity of California could see no
gain in retarding growth of turf
grasses.
“This would doubtless eliminate
a certain amount of mowing,” he
said, “but if there is wear on the
turf or a natural change of color
due to age of the leaves, I do not
see how quality can possible be
maintained unless there is reason-
ably rapid growth.”
The day you keep a plant from
growing new leaves is the day
your plant deteriorates. Dr. Schery
said, “for it is continously matur-
ing and losing old leaves as pert
of its normal physiological pro-
gress.
"Stopping or slowing growth
simple means the grace Is eet
beck, giving every advantage to
weeds, or other vegetation not
yet sprouted, that may not have
been equally affected by treat-
ment. or be differently tear ten tire
to it.”
That, he said was what happen-
ed with maleic hydrazide.
THE END RESULTS ie mere
weeds and an uneven spotty turf.
“It is the uniformity of a cut,”
Schery said, “not the actual height
or volume of growdh. which eon-
tributes to mowing attraettvenees.”
So we went to the basement and
oiled the Iawnmower.
i
New proposals on hail
insurance disapproved
AUSTIN (Spl) — The Texas In-
surance Board has disapproved
new crop - hail insurance filings,
covering insured cotton plantings,
by a number of insurance comp-
anies which would have reduced
premiums by six per cent but lew*
ered insurance company liability
more than 25 per cent.
The new filings also would have
carried an optional escalator
clause which would not have paid I
full damages until hail storms af-
ter July 1, and which would have
forced farmers to replant in order
to be eligible for the replanting
clause in a policy which most far-
mers prefer.
The action by the insurance
board followed hearings in Austin
April 18, requested by Plains Cot-
ton Growers Inc., to review prev-
ious approval of these filings which
were announced April 4.
». MORRIS Thomas, a Cotton
Center farmer, and George W.
Pfeiffenberger, executive vice
president of the FOG, testified at
the hearings that such new policies
would not have provided adequate
insurance coverage.
They also testified that finance
agencies would insist on better cov-
erage before granting production
loans under such conditions.
Cotton producers and finance
agency representatives from Pecos
also testified in line with the POG
views at the hearing.
THE BOARD ACTION leaves the
older policies unchanged except
that the storm date had been ad-
vanced forward by five days in all
zones.
This means that it is considered
feasible to replant cotton after da-
mage by hail occurring prior to
noon on June 5 in Zone 2, rather
than June 10 as In former policies.
That change was obtained at
hearings late November.
Cotton production
winners rankjiigh
in district meet
WINNERS IN THE Hockley
County 4-H cotton production con*
test placed within the top six In
each of their brackets in district
competition.
Dryland production winner John-
ny Tipton was fourth in the dis-
trict, while Kenneth Baggett, who
copped the county irrigated title,,
placed sixth.
Baggett produced 4,627 pounds on
five acres, while Tipton produced
1,992 pounds on his five acres.
WINNERS WERE Mike Paddack
of Terry County, who had 4,026
pounds in the irrigated division,
and Danny Brewer of Lynn Coun-
ty, whose yield was 3,974 pounds
on dryland.
Runners up in each of die divi-
sions were Cochran County youths,
Larry Mesa of Route 2, Morton,
produced 5,618 pounds in In igaled
competition, while Randall Gandy
of Bledsoe had 2,095 pounds ki
dryland.
Tipton, a Whitharral Elementary
School Student received s $75
premium, while Baggett, s Level-
land High School student, gained
$50 in premium on the district lev-
el.
The winners were presented at
a luncheon sponsored by the Plains
Co-op Oil Mill of Lubbock and the
AAM Extension service.
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Brewer, Orlin. The Levelland Daily Sun News (Levelland, Tex.), Vol. 18, No. 200, Ed. 1 Friday, April 29, 1960, newspaper, April 29, 1960; Levelland, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1132043/m1/7/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting South Plains College.