538 



Journal of Ai'ricultiire. 



[9 Sept., 1907. 



T. S. Hall has recorded before Field Naturalists' Club, that white cockatoos 

 •coming north from the Otways have performed the same office, and by digging 

 out the corms have cleared patches of ground infested by the weed. 



" Mr. C. French, jun., reports that he has often seen children eating the bulbs, 

 although to the novice the taste is by no means pleasant. A quantity of the 

 corms crushed and washed through a fine sieve yielded an abundance of fine 

 quality starch,' so that, were it not for the expense of collecting the bulbs, they 

 might form a profitable source of starch. The seeds are also highly nutritious, 

 and it is owing to the sparrows and other birds which eat the seeds that the 

 plant is so rapidly and widely spread. Future investigations may show some 

 use for the seeds. The stalk of the fruit capsule is strongly geophilous, and 

 curves down towards the ground during ripening. In loose ground it is some- 

 times partially or completely covered before the seeds are shed." 



To the foregoing the following accounts of the experiments on the 

 eradication of tliis plant may be added. Plots of land were selected in 

 which the weed was very abundant and uniformly distributed. These 

 were marked out into areas one yard square. Some were treated with 

 poisons and manures, others were cut or pulled, others mechanically treated 

 by digging, and still others planted with other plants to see if they would 

 suppress the weed. 



Suppression by Pasture Plants. — In the hard, dry, pooT soil in which 

 Romulea flourishes, no good pasture plant appears able to suppress it 

 according to field obsen^ations. Plants actually tried were Lucerne 

 {Medicago sativa) ; Black and burred Medick {M . lupuUna, M. deniicu- 

 lata); Birds foot Trefoil {Lotus cornkulatus) and various clovers such as 

 the white, red, and subterranean and strawberry clovers {Trifolium repens, 

 T. pratense, and T. siibtcrraneum and T. fragiferum. 



Poisons and Chemical Manures. — These were applied on i6th Sep- 

 tember, 1906, i.e., before any new seedlings were established, and the 

 final countings made in June and July, 1907. The results are well shown 

 in the appended table: — 



Substance. 



Ammonium Sulpha! e 

 Potassium Nitrate ... 

 Untouched Plots 

 Common Salt 



Sulphuric Acid 

 Ar.senite of Soda 



No. of Plants 

 remaining- 

 in 1907. 



S60 

 820 

 5.jO-9(H> 

 320 

 260 

 400 

 280 

 360 

 250 



Condition. 



Darker green 

 About normal 



Stunted 



Stunted, bare of other vegetation 



Nearly normal 



Stunted, and ground nearly bare 



Apparently normal 



Somewhat greyish green 



Evidently poisons are quite ineffective except at a prohibitive cost and 

 in quantities which would render the ground useless for long periods of 

 time. Nitrogenous chemical manures encourage the Romulea as much 

 as they do neighbouring pasture plants. 



Mechanical Methods. — To loosen the soil and pick out the corms is 

 impossible on a large scale. The corms occur from near the surface to 

 nearly 6 inches depth according to their age and to the character of the 

 soil, so that it is a day's work to pick out all the corms from a square rod 

 ■of badly infested ground, which equals a labour charge of over ;£ioo 

 I'cr acre. 



A plot was selected containing approximately 460 — 500 plants per 

 square yard. One square yard was dug over and a top dressing of 



