-S.- "V- '"' FARMERS' BULLETIN 687. 



all the plats was seeded to a pasture mixture of grass and clover in 

 August. 



. Cut series. The number of cut plats was two. They were both 

 treated alike as to cutting, but one of them was limed and fertilized 

 in June and seeded in August, while the other was merely seeded in 

 August. 



EXPERIMENTS OP 1913. 



It was the intention to duplicate the treatment of 1912 on all the 

 plats. In the spring of 1913, however, it was evident that the- re- 

 sults of spraying on the plats treated with salt and arseiiite of soda 

 in 1912 had been so effective that there was not much foni left on 

 v liich to experiment. Accordingly, two new plats were laid out in 

 1913 to test the relative merits of these two materials. The quantities 

 used were less, but were equal as to cost, as before. Each plat was 

 sprayed twice. 



In addition to these two plats, two small areas of the 1912 sprayed 

 plats were sprayed with the same solutions described above to note 

 their effect on the young seeding of grass and clover. 



There were no cutting plats in 1913, as there were numerous places 

 in the fields where the fern had been cut one year and also two years 

 in succession. The cut plats of 1912 were untouched in 1913 in 

 order to note the fighting qualities of the fern in the presence of the 

 new seeding of grass and clover. 



CONCLUSIONS FROM EXPERIMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS WITH FERNS. 



CUTTING. 



Cutting ordinarily is a cheaper method of handling ferns than spray- 

 ing. With ferns at an average degree of thickness in a pasture a man 

 ought to cover about 2\ acres a day. With labor at $1.50 the cost 

 of cutting fern is about 60 cents an acre for each cutting, as com-j 

 pared with spraying with salt at about $1.05. 



A further advantage of cutrtmg is that it is less complicated than 

 spraying and requires only the use of a tool with which all farmers 

 are thoroughly familiar. 



Still another advantage is that seeding to grass and clover can be 

 made as soon after the first cutting as is desired. After the original 

 stand of ferns is cut down, the subsequent growth is seldom so thick 

 as to prevent young grass working in. The seeding can be done 

 the. same year that the work of eradication is started, so that bv the 

 following year a good growth of young grass and clover may bo 

 expected, which in itself contributes to the reduction of the number 

 of ferns. 



