Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [lo Jan., 191 i. 



sloping pasture land, where it is extremely abundant. The fact was first 

 definitely established that the roots are actually parasitic upon grass roots 

 to which they establish themselves by means of little lateral suckers. The 

 attachments is easily broken, but if whole sods are lifted and the soil washed 

 gently awav, the connexion between the two plants can easily be traced. 

 (See Fig. on plate.) 



When the Bartsia plants first appear, the connexions are usually not yet 

 established, but they are fully formed before the flowers open. If the plants 

 are abundant, the grass may die out between them, leaving bare patches, 

 and in these, occasional plants may be found whose roots appear to have 

 formed no attachment with grass roots. Such plants are, however, usually 

 .short and stunted. In any case, the destruction of the grass plants be- 

 comes a very serious matter in pastures where the Bartsia is abundant, since 

 the grass only recovers with difficulty and a moderate number of plants 

 may reduce the carrying capacity of a pasture to one-half what it should 

 be. 



In carrying out the experiments a plot of ground was selected over 

 which the plant was growing fairly evenly distributed. This was divided 

 into plots each having an area of one-fortieth of an acre, the total number 

 of plots being fourteen. The Bartsia is an annual plant propagating itself 

 by seed and dying down at the end of summer. Unfortunately, the heavy 

 rains falling when the ground was hard, evidently washed a large amount 

 of the seed doAvn on to the lower row of plots, .so that the results obtained 

 are difficult to interpret. As. however, the results are in one sense mainly 

 negative, this is of less importance, and as all the tests were made in dupli- 

 cate it is possible to control the results, although the distribution of the- 

 seed to commence with, was irregular. 



Experimental Plots — Eradication of Bartsia. 



In the first place, the preliminary tests showed that poisons were quite 

 useless for dealing with this weed. In all cases where poisons were used, 

 the grass was affected more than the Bartsia. The ]ilots were then used to 

 determine whether, bv the use of a chemical manure, it might be possible 

 to stimulate the grass without encouraging the Bartsia and so to enable the- 



