ABSTRACT

The scope of weed-control operations on privately owned lands in the US is enormous. Cultural, mechanical, ecological, and biological methods of weed control are used on more than 400 million acres of cultivated crops each year. A survey of state legislative authority for weed control indicates that some type of noxious weed-control regulations have been in effect for many years. Weeds are a menace to the industrial and agricultural economy of our nation and a threat to the health of humans, livestock, fish, and wildlife. Unless weeds on federally and state managed lands, rights-of-way, industrial sites, and other nonagricultural areas are controlled, it will be difficult to reduce losses caused by weeds on privately owned lands. Comprehensive studies are made to develop principles, practices, and methods of using herbicides and other weed-control techniques in solving regional agricultural weed and brush problems in agronomic crops, horticultural crops, forests, grazing land, and aquatic and noncropland sites.