888 



HOETICULTUKE 



December 20, 1913 



WEED EXTERMINATION. 



(Dr. G. E. Stone, in Annual Report of 

 Mass. Agrl. Exper. Station.) 



In recent years a great deal has 

 been done along the lines of weed 

 extermination, and many different 

 methods have been experimented with 

 and some of them adopted. There 

 are several proprietary articles and 

 mechanical devices on the market 

 purporting to solve some of the 

 phases of the weed question, but 

 most of them are rather expensive 

 when used on a large scale. When 

 one needs only a small amount of 

 ■weedicide, however, it is better to 

 "buy the easily procured proprietary 

 article than to bother with the crude 

 material, which is often hard to ob- 

 tain. 



Sulfate of iron has proved valuable 

 in the west for the extermination of 

 such tender plants as mustard and 

 others when used as a spray in grain 

 fields, and it can also be used for 

 killing dandelions in lawns. It is in- 

 expensive when bought in bulk, al- 

 though the proprietary article, con- 

 sisting of pulverized sulfate of iron 

 mixed with nitrate of soda and sand 

 and put out in expensive containers, 

 is not so cheap. Arsenate of soda, 

 ■which can be bought in bulk or as a 

 commercial article, and similar com- 

 pounds are also used as weed killers. 



Of the several mechanical devices 

 used for weed extermination, some 

 are designed to pull up the weeds 

 and others to kill them by injecting 

 poisonous chemicals into the roots, 

 while still others do the work by 

 burning. Even electricity has been 

 tried, but with rather unsatisfactory 

 results, since considerable current is 

 required to kill even small plants. 

 Salt, copper sulfate, carbolic acid, 

 nitrate of soda and many other ma- 

 terials have been used as weed 

 killers, and undoubtedly in the future 

 cheaper and more efficient methods 

 will be found. 



Arsenate of Soda. 



Arsenical compounds appear to be 

 the most poisonous to weeds. Of 

 these, arsenate or arsenite of soda is 

 usually employed, and is especially 

 valuable for destroying weeds in dirt 

 walks, roads, ditches and tennis 

 courts and for killing poison ivy 



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about trees, buildings, stone walls, 

 etc. It is very poisonous to plants 

 and lasting in its effects. One or two 

 applications at the rate of 10 gallons 

 of the solution per square rod (made 

 up of 1 pound of the arsenate of soda 

 to 5 or 10 gallons of water) will last 

 for some years. This substance does 

 not appear to leach out of the soil to 

 any extent, while many others used 

 as weed killers either volatize quick- 

 ly or leach out through the soil, pro- 

 ducing only a temporary effect. Ar- 

 senate of soda can be used to advan- 



Watcrlng-Can with Device for Applying 

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tage also in treating 4 or 5 inches of 

 a lawn close to the foundations of 

 buildings, to save clipping by hand 

 the tall grass which cannot be reach- 

 ed with a lawn mower. 



The most satisfactory way to apply 

 arsenate of soda is by means of a 

 sprinkler with an attachment to direct 

 the spray. With this device it is pos- 

 sible to treat walks up to the very 

 edge without injuring the grass in the 

 least. A single drop of arsenate of 

 soda will injure any vegetation It 

 touches, so care must be used in 

 handling it; therefore this little at- 

 tachment is valuable for directing the 

 liquid. Arsenate of soda should not 

 be used too freely near the feeding 

 roots of trees, but we have never no- 

 ticed any injury from treating walks 

 near shrubbery or even within a few 

 feet of large trees. 



Weeds in Lawns. 



To insure a heavy growth of grass 

 and absence of weeds a lawn should 

 have a good, deep foundation of rich 

 soil, well supijlied with organic mat- 

 ter and plant food. It is also impor- 

 tant that the soil should possess the 

 proper jihysical properties or texture 

 in order to produce a good growth of 

 grass, and it should have sufficient 

 water-retaining capacity to enable the 

 grass to endure drought. A soil of 

 medium texture well provided with 

 loam, with a water-retaining capacity 



of about 70 per cent., is much better 

 than a course soil of less water-re- 

 taining capacity; for in seasons of 

 drought the coarse soil will dry out 

 very quickly and the grass will suffer, 

 whereas the reverse is true of the 

 fine soil. The weed proposition loses 

 some of its importance if the lawn is 

 well made, since a good growth of 

 grass will crowd out the weeds. New 

 lawns are more troubled with weeds on 

 this account. One of the worst weeds af- 

 fecting new lawns is crab grass {Digi- 

 taria humifiisa), but it lasts only a 

 year or two, as a rule. It is much 

 more troublesome on dry lawns, where 

 the catch of grass is poor. Frequent 

 close cutting of the grass in the fall 

 is a good preventive, since the seed is 

 not allowed to mature. Two of the 

 plajitains, P. lancenlnta and P. major, 

 are troublesome in lawns, more espe- 

 cially where the grass is thin. Cut- 

 ting plaintain at different distances 

 from the roots w^ith a special device 

 has not always proved satisfactory, 

 and our observations have shown that 

 when cut in this way a large percent- 

 age of the plants renew their growth. 

 This appears to be true, also, of the 

 dandelion. 



The stems of plantain are. as a rule, 

 only about % or 1 inch in length, and 

 if cut quite deep below the surface 

 of the ground a considerable percent- 

 age could possibly be destroyed, 



(Tn he continued) 





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