.6.:"-': :..: -''''' 



BULLETIN 687. 



dew. The stock eat and trample the plants in their effort to get the 

 salt. This plan has been successful on at least one farm near Delhi, 

 N. Y. Since the saltings must be rather frequent, the areas treated 

 should be those that are easily accessible. 



CULTIVATION. 



There is no doubt that cultivation destroys ferns. The difficult 

 is that the steep and rocky character of the fern-infested land does 

 not permit effective cultivation except on limited areas. Cultivation 

 has been tried on Mr. Thomson's farm with indifferent success. 

 When a piece of pasture was plowed up and put into small grain, fol- 

 lowed by seeding to grass, the fern worked in again, so that it is now 



FIG. 5. General view in southern New York, showing land in the foreground on which hay-scented ferns 

 have been eradicated by cutting. 



as thick as formerly. Another piece of pasture land was well culti-j 

 vated in potatoes and afterward seeded to grass. In this piece the 

 fern was slower in working back, but later a fairly good stand of tho 

 weed was found. If the cultivation could have been continued for 

 several years, permanent eradication of the fern might have been 

 expected, but the character of the land prevented this treatment. 



EXPERIMENTS IN FERN ERADICATION. 



Having learned the value of the various methods already in use in 

 controlling ferns, the question arose whether there were anv other 

 methods that might be more satisfactorily employed. Spraying with 



