32 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



(7) Where weeds are particularly plentiful, the root crops should be 

 increased in the rotation, as the increased tillage and thorough hoeing 

 they receive are of immense advantage in suppressing weeds. 



(8) Among implements and tools which are particularly useful 

 against weeds may be mentioned the various types of thistle and bracken 

 cutter, the poppy killer for surface tillage, American and other weeders, 

 bagging-hook, spuds, various types of hoes, mattock, daisy grubs and 

 docking irons, and the " Buco " hand cultivator, which is employed in 

 the West Indies as hoe, fork or rake. 



(9) Hand-pulling; brushing of hedges, ditches and waste areas; and 

 collection of weeds throughout a district by co-operation, are all sound 

 methods. Dr. Ewart (Government Botanist, Victoria) mentions a case 

 in which 12,000 plants of ragwort were collected by school children in 

 four days, the number quickly rising to 20,000. 



(10) Draining may be necessary to eradicate some weeds, e.g. 

 sedges, rushes, horsetails, mosses; some weeds, e.g. ragwort, knap- 

 weed and ox-eye daisy, may be reduced by depasturing with sheep; 

 small patches of perennial weeds like creeping buttercups, bindweeds, 

 coltsfoot, may be covered with strong tarred paper pegged firmly to the 

 ground, the exclusion of light destroying vegetation beneath; "lawn 

 sands " may have an almost marvellous effect in suppressing daisies and 

 similar weeds on lawns, but they must be carefully employed; injecting 

 poisonous materials into weeds like dandelions will kill them ; the use of 

 lime is effective against some weeds, e.g. spurrey, sheep sorrel, corn 

 marigold, bracken, mosses; a pinch of salt or sulphate of ammonia on 

 daisies, plantains and the cut tops of dandelions and docks is lilvely to 

 destroy them. 



(11) Spraying is effective in destroying some weeds. For example, 

 charlock, runch, Persicaria and spurrey may be destroyed by a solution 

 of copper sulphate ; and quite a number of weeds are partially destroyed 

 — seeding being prevented — by spraying with a solution of copper sul- 

 phate or iron sulphate. 



The effect of a solution of copper sulphate on dandelions has been 

 shown by Mr. H. L. Bolley, North Dakota Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station, who says that he " can safely vouch for the statement 

 that spraying, when properly undertaken, is a much cheaper means of 

 disposing of this pest in lawns than any other mode now in use, and 

 that the grass need in no way be injured."' 



Identification of Seedlings. 



In order to combat a w^eed successfully it is necessary to know 

 whether it is an annual, biennial or perennial, and preferably some- 

 thing more of its life-history. Further, it is useful to be able to 

 identify it before it reaches the mature stage, though we may say 

 that all seedlings should be destroyed. Yet for future years it is 

 well to know what weeds are when they appear as seedling 

 plants. Now seedlings are as different among themselves as 

 are flowering plants, and they differ not only by natural orders but by 



