HOW TO GET RID OF COUCH GRASS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume VII, Issue 245, 8 March 1889, Page 2

HOW TO GET RID OF COUCH GRASS.

I ♦ • A. correspondent of the Field in E»g\ j land gives bis experience of this method! of dealing with ground infested with | couch or twitch grass He says:— On light sandy soils the less the ground is exposed to the action of ihf air the better. Anything beyond the necessary preparations of the seed- bed by one ploughing is labor thrown away, .and. deprives the soil of its most valuable constituents. But the question may be asked : How do you keep your ground clean, seeing that there is no ground in which rubbish gro-vs so fast aa iv this light, warm soil ? In reply, I will give an example of bow I lately cleaned a foul field, fiist premising that it was one of a farm that I had just purchased and which had been allowed to get into a fearful state of foulness. When it came into my hands, tnfolium and couch were struggling for mastery, and the latter wa» apparently getting the best of it- However, I let both grow, aod Ihee was a fair crop, whish of course, was harvested before the sending of cove.'i had commenced. I then carted on twenty loids of good dung to the acre, • toughed it in, and sowed mustard. This Utter came up and went off in good s'y c, *<> that in a few weeks, spite of toe dry summer of 1887, it was nearly SOin in bright, and with stems like reeds. I then put i he plough in, with a chain on to di.i^ the mustard into the furrow.. and by this nceans I buried most of it, although it must he imid that the ground looked untidy. I 'o'le'J it down in the cou.ge of a we I; or two, then harrowed it, m:hl pit in ivjoter tares witii « little wint-r !>.iiliy to hold the former up. TiiefoM-i>ving i-eason (1888) was very wet, and I do not think I ever saw such a piece of tares in my life, supported by the ciinuing to ths barley, and growing with the strength of the dressing hene.ith them they stood up all over the field over 2ft in height, and Htnotberci*) evorrntom of rubbish in the fieid. After i ern^r (Yd off, and when the ground wa ploughed for ear/y turnips there w<s not a vestige of couch to be seen. Th' r<> is now a. first rate | ieee of turnips, which will be followed by wheat, put in December, which is quite early enough for us. The above plan appears to have several advantages : Ist, the labour of cleaning a foul field is saved, and, iti.su ad, the expense of mas. tard-sci'd is incu red. Om<l here le: me say that there is nothing like mu-tard seed to kill couch) ; 2nd, nothing is takeu off the ground or wasted by being burned ; and, 3rd, cleaning is far moiff thoroughly done than by a full farrow, even assuming m ■ t rhi: pen eon permits of this being mad .mJtr good Condi* tioni."