544 Journal of Agriculture. [lo Sept., 1908- 



they grow up and start to mature the scale will disappear, or almost so. 

 Oaks with large leaves are more subject to the scale than those with smaller 

 leaves. The goldfinches are the greatest enemies the scale has. It is 

 wonderful to see how well they can clear an oak tree. 



ERADICATIOX OF BRACKEN. 



Alfred ]. Ewari, D.Sc., Ph. D., F.L.S., Government Botanist. 



The fronds should be burnt off if possible. If not cut off and used for 

 bedding, or dried and burnt in heaps, they may be ploughed in if the land 

 is at all poor in humus, but are then apt to be raked out again with the 

 rhizomes. 



The land should be ploughed as deeply as possible, and the rhizomes 

 near the surface raked out in rows by a horse rake and then into heaps. If 

 chaffed with hay, especially after steaming, and placed in a silo the rhi- 

 zomes make good nutritious food as they contain much starch. The fodder 

 should not contain more than 10 to 20 per cent, bv weight of the rhizomes 

 since they contain large amounts of tannin and ot'her as.tringents and by 

 thenrselves are impalatable and injurious in their action on stock. The 

 molment the land is clear and fairly well broken up, potatoes should be 

 planted and repeated a second year, or the first crop should be followed by 

 drilled maize or some other green crop which can be worked between the 

 rows while young and which when older covers the ground with dense leafy 

 foliage. In this way a small but immediate return can be obtained while 

 the land is ibeing cleared, but in any case drainiage will be necessary if the 

 land is at all wet or sodden. Bracken land usually needs liming, half to 

 one ton per acre, or even more when first broken up, and within two or 

 three years needs ordinary farmyard manure. Phosphates will only be 

 needed later on when grain is grown. The above plan has succeeded very 

 well oni bracken land near Melbourne, an immediate profit being secured 

 from newlv broken bracken land. 



THE PROCLAIMED PLANTS OF VICTORIA. 



{Continued from page 480.) 



Alfred J. Euart, D. Sc., Ph. D., F.L.S., Government Botanist ; and 

 J. R. Tovey, Herbarium Assistant. 



The Pitch Weed. 



Madia sativa, Mol. 



This erect annual, with opposite or alternate narrow pointed leaves, 

 and small yellow heads of flowers is obnoxious on account of its sticky 

 hairs, and though not of any appreciable economic value is only locally 

 abundant or troublesome. It has been proclaimed for the shire of 

 Violet Town. 



The plant is a native of Chili, but probably reached Victoria via Europe, 

 where it is sometimes grown for the nutty cooking oil extracted from its 

 seeds. Since the seeds do not appear to be long lived, and the plant is an 

 annual, it is easily kept under by cultivation and hoeing, if care is taken to 

 keep waste places, and the edges and borders of fields clean. The plaiii 

 may be largely pulled out of pastures by using a closely toothed horse rake 

 or scuffier after rain before it has ripened its seed. 



