74 COMMON WEEDS 



cultivations at intervals of a fortnight before the turnips 

 are sown. Large quantities of Spurrey may thus be 

 destroyed in this manner, and the practice may be 

 followed by thorough hand and horse hoeings. If 

 necessary, the next " seeds " may be sown without a 

 corn crop, and this also will enable the plan of surface 

 cultivation in spring to be followed, the " seeds " being 

 sown in June. 



It is stated that lime has a good effect in ridding 

 land of Spurrey, and Hall even says that the presence 

 of Spurrey on arable land is a pretty sure sign of the 

 absence of lime. At Woburn, when part of an infested 

 field was treated with lime, the Spurrey disappeared. 

 On the other hand, a correspondent of the Mark Lane 

 Express states 1 that "in November 1908 I ploughed 

 into 4 acres about 13 tons of gas-lime, and this 

 spring my oats were suffocated with Spurrey." In 

 an experiment at Capel Curig also, two plots, which 

 respectively received 10 cwt. and 20 cwt. of ground 

 lime before the corn was sown, showed no difference 

 at -harvesting. Where, after the corn and Spurrey had 

 made some growth, a plot was sprayed with 50 gallons 

 per acre of a 5 per cent solution of copper sulphate, 

 the Spurrey was completely destroyed. In another 

 trial at Bodorgan, where a considerable quantity of 

 Spurrey appeared, 3, 4, and 5 per cent solutions of 

 copper sulphate were tried ; all were more or less 

 effective, only half the Spurrey forming seed on the 

 plot treated with the 3 per cent solution, and not 

 more than 20 per cent on the other two plots. 2 



A form of Spurrey is widely grown as a fodder 

 crop in Belgium and elsewhere on the Continent, and 



1 August 30, 1909. 



2 Agric. Dept., Univ. Coll. N. Wales, Bangor, Bull, ix., 1906; Bull. 

 vii., 1907. 



