62 EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



Effects of Chemicals on Yegetation. 



BY G. E. STONE. 



A general interest is manifested by the public in weed ex- 

 terminators, or substances which will destroy noxious growths 

 in soils or water, and a number of different preparations have 

 been recommended. Some of these have proprietary names, 

 such as Herbicide, Weedicide, etc., and the proprietary prepa- 

 rations which we have tested have proved to be valuable. 



There are numerous chemicals which will kill vegetation, 

 and in exterminating noxious growths it becomes necessary to 

 employ different substances and a variety of methods of ap- 

 plying them. The writer has carried on a series of experiments 

 with various chemicals covering a period of years, and many 

 of the proprietary weed killers and other substances have been 

 tested, as well as various methods. The results of some of these 

 experiments are given in the tables which follow. 



In the experiments reported in Table I. the plots used were 

 one-twentieth of a square rod in size, and were arranged on a 

 small tract of land which had occasionally been mowed with a 

 lawn mower, and which was well covered with various grasses 

 and clover, intermixed with plantain and dandelion. 



Different chemicals were employed, usually at the rate of 1 

 part to 20 parts of water. In the case of the gasoline we used 

 a different ratio, and the water mixture was, of course, a me- 

 chanical one. The substances were applied at the rate of 10 

 gallons to the square rod, which, when put on in the proportion 

 of 1 to 20, would be equivalent to applying 4 pounds to 10 gal- 

 lons of water. These experiments were made in June, 1901, 

 and the observations recorded were made at different periods 

 for two months. 



