To SUPPRESSION OF WEELs. 
An equally effective mode of treatment is, however, to cultivate a crop, 
such as potatoes, during whose growth the ground is kept frequently stirred 
so that even weeds which ripen and shed their seed in six weeks’ time 
(Chickweed, Pimpernel, &c.) have no time to do so. When a field is very 
foul it is advisable to plant the rows as close together (16 to 22 inches) as 
can be done without the last workings destroying the runners. This ap- 
plies especially on moist ground, whereas, under drier conditions, in good 
deep soil where the rows may be 27 or 30 inches apart, even though plenty 
of light reaches the ground between the rows, the seedlings have little chance 
of establishing themselves in the dry surface soil. Leafy fodder crops like 
maize or sorghum are equally useful to suppress seedling weeds, provided 
they are planted in drills close together, and the weed seedlings kept down 
during the early growth of the crop. 
PERENNIALS.—Here, the prevention of seeding must be combined with 
the rooting out and destruction of all perennial parts, especially when tnese 
have the nature of runners, bulbs or rhizomes. All weeds with single 
bulbs or corms (Guildford Grass, Daffodils, Field Garlic) are easily kept 
under by ploughing and cultivation, especially if- coupled with manuring 
and rotations, and if care is taken that the ground is either worked or 
covered with a strong crop at the time when the leafy growth of the weed 
is most active. , 
The same applies to weeds. possessing rhizomes or runners, such as the 
different couch grasses, several of the creeping sedges, sorrels, &c., except 
that in this case the rhizomes and runners must be raked together in heaps 
and burnt after the land has been ploughed and harrowed. The ploughing 
in this case should usually be a very shallow one, so that the sod is cut 
just beneath the rhizomes and no deeper. 
In the case of plants with deep vertical tap roots and a stock on top 
(Dandelion, Dock, &c.), very careful raking or even hand picking is 
necessary and the ploughing should be deep enough to pass beneath the 
thicker portion of the tap-root. Any large portion of the latter left in 
the soil will start a fresh plant. The St. John’s Wort needs similar treat- 
ment, and at first combines the disadvantages of the Dock and Couch Grass 
as regards its eradication. It soon succumbs to continued good cultivation, 
however, instead of thriving under it as some weeds do. 
In the case of all perennials, for the prevention of their re-establishment 
by seed after the ground has been cleared from the vegetative perennial 
parts, much the same treatment is required as for annuals. There are, in 
addition, a variety of special modes of treatment which apply to special 
plants or to parasites and these will be given in connexion with the plants 
with which they deal. 
WerrEpD SUPPRESSION IN SPARSELY SETTLED Districts.—The greatest 
opposition to the application of the provisions of the Thistle Act is not in 
all:cases experienced from such districts, although it is precisely in such dis- 
tricts that the problem is most difficult. Nevertheless, many large and small 
cwners prefer to hold their land as a harbouring place for weeds from which 
a little grazing can be snatched, rather than properly utilize and cultivate 
it, for pastures are as open to cultivation and improvement as ordinary 
arable land and are bound to deteriorate in the absence of proper care and 
treatment. It is not too much to say that all land which an owner cannot 
keep reasonably free from weeds and which cannot be otherwise: utilized 
should grow timber, and the amount of land in Victoria upon which useful 
timber cannot be grown forms but a small percentage of the total area. 
