Science: Wild Oats Unsown

Like crab grass in a suburban lawn, wild oats in a field of wheat are an insidious pest. The stubborn weed looks like wheat, grows like wheat, and is so closely related to wheat that neither cultivation nor common weed killers can hold it back without harming the wheat crop. But a couple of U.S. manufacturers have finally concocted the kind of agricultural magic that farmers have been seeking for centuries: a weed-killing chemical so selective that it can actually tell wild oats from wheat.

Stirred into the soil, Avadex (Monsanto Chemical Co.) kills wild oats just as seeds begin to sprout. Carbyne (Spencer Chemical Co.) is sprayed on weed seedlings causing them to turn blue and shrivel, while surrounding wheat continues to thrive. Tested on wheatfields in Can ada and the U.S., the two chemicals have been a spectacular success, sometimes boosting an area's yield by as much as 15 bu. an acre. They will get their first full-scale workout this spring on the rolling wheatland of Western Canada.

Although agricultural experts are still not certain just how the two chemicals do the delicate job of differentiating between wheat and weed, they are confidently predicting remarkable results. Some scientists expect the Canadian wheat crop alone to show an increase of 75 million bu. a year. And though both companies may sell more Avadex and Carbyne than any other herbicide ever made, some of their scientists suspect that they have opened the lid on a Pandora's box. Said one of them last week: "With a surplus of North American wheat right now, what are we going to do with more?"