9 Sept., 1907.] Guild ford Grass. 539> 



I inch of horse manure applied. After one yeaV it contained 260 plants of 

 Romulea. A second plot, dug over only, contained 320 plants. A 

 third was dug over 12 inches deep, so that the top 6 inches v/ere placed at 

 the bottom, and the plants covered with at least 6 inches of soil. It con- 

 tained after one year 210 plants. A similarlv treated plot was covered 

 with an inch of horse manure. It contained after one year 160 plants 

 only. 



Evidently therefore the weed can be best suppressed on pasture land 

 by manuring, ploughing, and bringing the land under cultivation for a 

 time. A leafy crop like potatoes is tlie most suitable at least for the 

 first year, since Romulea loves hard, dry ground where it receives plenty 

 of sun, and with potatoes the ground is well worked and kept open. 

 Romulea develops its leaves, however, from April to October, so that 

 to cut light from it a cold-resistant <'rop like winter wheat is best. 



It is often curious to notice how Romulea follows hard tracks along 

 roads without passing into the fields through the soft ground by the 

 wire fences, and enters the fields through the gates where the ground 

 is trodden hard, and the other vegetation is short. A mere wire fence 

 under which the ground is soft and the vegetation longer than outside or 

 inside suffices to keep the plant out of a field for a considerable time after 

 it has tra\'elled or been carried down a road. Loosening the soil and 

 keeping the stock from it for a time would have the same effect in the open 

 pasture. Mr. Cameron has suggested that stock carry the corms on their 

 feet from place to place, and hence into the fields, but this is very unlikely, 

 although seed might be carried in this way. The chief agents in spreading 

 the seeds are birds, however, and the corms maintain the plant wherever it 

 has become established without aiding in its spread. 



The abundant presence of this plant on pasture land may be regarded 

 as a sign that the pasture is in poor condition, and that the soil needs 

 opening, loosening, and manuring. No plants with single bulbs or corms 

 flourish under a system of rotation farming, and they only prove realh 

 serious on overstocked natural unimproved pasture land, where no pro- 

 visions are taken to restore the balance of nature disturbed by the presence 

 of the stock. 



The weed, though preferring dry ground, can also stand a good deal 

 of moisture, so that flooding land is of no avail in its extermination. In 

 fact, of a number of corms kept under water for two months, and then air 

 dried for two months, over 60 percent, produced new leaves when planted. 

 The mere encouragement of a heavv growth of grass by resting the land, 

 by top dressing with stable manure (not chemical manures) coupled with a 

 scarifying of the surface to loosen the soil aids greatly in keeping down 

 the weed, and such treatment pavs in results for its cost. 



Treatment for Lawns and Cricket Grounds. — The tough wiry grass- 

 like slightly channelled leaves appear above ground usually in April, and 

 are actively assimilating food until September or October. Flowering 

 begins usually in August, and seed are formed until October or even 

 November. Hence the leaves must be kept closely cut all through winter, 

 and this steadily exhausts the plant. The grass should be cut closely or 

 mown with a machine as often as the leaves attain any length, and when- 

 ever any flowers appear. This should be done in as dry weather as possible 

 to avoid compressing the soil by too much trampling when moist. If 

 necessary light top dressings mav be used, of short well decayed stable 

 manure, and two years of such treatment should practically free any cricket 

 ground or lawn from the pest, or greatly reduce it. 



