THE SORREL WEED-HOW TO KILL IT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 669, 16 May 1914, Page 2

THE SORREL WEED-HOW TO KILL IT.

Aa regarcte grazing or cropping there is no greater vegetation peat than sorrel, nor one in connection with which we receive more communications asking for informition as to how to get rid of it. One correspondent ask 3 whether it is true that liming is a remedy and while it can be said that a dressing of agricultural lime is good, still it is- not effective by itself. There are other measures necessary aa well, juat aa i'n the cultivation of land good ploughing and afterwards well knocking the sorrel about with the cultivator or har rows in hct weather is good .for killing the pest, yet this is not alone sufficient.

How to get rid of thia pest is explained by a study of its character. Tho sorrel plant, as far as its root system is concerned, very much resembles the California:! thistle. From each main root stem there grows out laterally,3t intervals on its way downwards, other root growths from each of which other rootlets strike out downwards, so as to rapidly form a close network underlying tho whole of a 3orrel-a<rt!cted area. Difficult as this multiplied root growth is to cope with, still, if that were all, the discing system by exposing and knocking the roots about on the surfacepreferably under a hot sun—would no doubt be successful, but the sorrel plant, in addition to it root growth, is al?o a most prolific seed produce-r. Each plant if allowed to mature, produces a heavy crop of minute black seeds. Thus it comes that the seeds as well as the roots have to be dealt with. No matter how effective ploughing or discing may bo in destroying the root growths, yet if the S9ed is not dealt with, all the tillage devoted to root extermination only goes towards further cultivating the seed and bringing forth further new growths of the sorrel, The information herewith may be relied on as the results by a Western Plain 3 farmer who groves wheat in combination with sheep keeping, and after trying everything has onlynow arrived at the effective method. Instances have occurred wherti sorrel ploughed down in the autumn had been sppaiently killed. In spite of this, however, after a crop had been sown, it wa3 found that the rains which sprouted the young wheat or oats, also started the seed of the plougbed-cown sorrel, which came up in such profusion as to choke the crop. This is where the sheep come in. After discing to kill the sorrel roots, it is found that with the first shower of rain the young shoots of the sorrel immediately come up again. This young growth now requires to be eaten down by the sheep, ar.d here it requires to be noted that tho eating down is best done before the plant seeds, because the vitality of sorrel is Buch that the seeds will spring up i again, even after passing through the sheep. Eating down, by itself, to discing, by itself, are equally useless. The two must be done in conjunction. First, there is the discing to get the roots up to the surface, so as to be killed by knocking about under heat; and second, when the young growth springs up after a Bhower, eating it down with the sheep, repeating the discing and eating down as before. In most cases a double repetition will be found sufficient, but the very worst sorral paddock succumbs to a treble repetition, particularly if the work is taken in hand early in the dry weather, so as to secure the advantage of the best conditions. With regard to liming, providing that the foregoing precautions are taken, tha use of lime can be recommended. On this point a Barrabool Hills correspondent thus writes us:—"Seeing a lime advertisement in the 'Leader,' I obtained some, and applied it during the early Dart of this year to a piece of ooor, sandy loam, which had become so badly infected with sorrel that it could be torn to pieces like old bagging. A ploughing, followed in a week or tvo by a couple of borrowings, so completely destroyed the sorrel and improved the condition of the soil on th 9 plot referred to that I am simply astonished at the transformation. I apply it in the winter to my grass lond and heavier soils at the same rate, viz., about 10 cwt. to the acre. The question arises an to the application of fertilisers following lime. I am informed that the effect of super, is delroyed thereby if applied within twelve months, and that bona fertilisers are to soma extent an addition to the lime, and therefore not advisable. In January I sowed maize on a Hat of dark sandy loam, adding lime to the furrows in which the seed was placed. Owing to th 9 absence of rain, only a small percentage germinated, but this was healthy, and throve aa well as if supered. Since then I have sown the same piece to Tartarian and white oats, with 1201b per acre super., and the resultant crop was unsatisfactory. This seems to confirm the theory that the liming has a bad effect on the other, if the latter is applied too soon."