ERADICATION OF FERNS FROM PASTURE 



plant poisons suggested itself as the most promising. Accordingly, 

 experiments were planned in cooperation with Mr. Thomson to com- 

 pare the value of spraying with cutting, as well as to learn something 

 about the best way of getting a stand of grass and clover on the in- 

 fested areas. These experiments covered a period of two years, 1912 

 and 1913. 



EXPERIMENTS IN 1912. 



The tests were made in two series. Series 1 consisted of spraying 

 to kill the ferns, accompanied by seeding, liming, and fertilizing to 

 encourage a stand of grass. All plats were sprayed twice except one, 

 which was sprayed four times. Series 2 consisted of cutting, also 

 accompanied by seeding, liming, and fertilizing. Each plat was cut 



FIG. 6. Cutting ferns with a scythe on a hillside. 



twice. The two sprayings and two cuttings on the various plats were 

 made about the middle of June and August, just preceding sporing 

 time. 



Sprayed series. The number of sprayed plats was four, all being 

 uniformly and fairly well set to ferns. The materials used were 

 solutions of common salt, iron sulphate, and arsenitc of soda, and in 

 order to make the treatments comparable as to cost the quantities 

 applied to the various plats were of equal value. The sprayer used 

 was a hand bucket pump, which produced a fairly mistlike spray. 

 The entire surface of the plat was treated, the grass as well as the 

 ferns. One-half of each plat was limed and fertilized in June at the 

 rate per acre of 300 pounds of acid phosphate, 150 pounds of muriate 

 of potash, and 2,000 pounds of hydrated lime. The entire surface of 



