CANADIAN THISTLE PEST

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 930, 25 March 1930, Page 7

CANADIAN THISTLE PEST

SODIUM CHLORATE TESTS Press Association CHRISTCHURCH, Monday

In addition to the trials that have been carried out at Lincoln College m the eradication of Californian thistle ! by means of sodium chlorate, the Department of Agriculture has also been carrying out experiments of its own. j Mr. R. McGillivray, superintendent of ; the fields division of the department in Canterbury, stated that it was a little too early yet to say how efficacious the chlorate might be. “The department,” he said, “lias applied it to several patches cf thistle, mostly in a solution of about lib of sodium chlorate to two gallons of water by means *of a sprayer. In one case the solution was applied to a patch in the late afternoon and the same night it rained fairly heavily. It was Hi ought that the rain might have had some detrimental effect on the action of the chlorate, but it was found that the soltuion proved more effective than when it was applied in dry weather. In all the cases the thistles treated have shown further growth and have been sprayed again.” In the case of ragwort, a weed that is found extensively in the North Island and parts of Southland, the sodium chlorate treatment has been found most effective. “One application of the solution,” said Mr. McGillivray, I “has completely destroyed it. The | thistle, however, is a different proposition, but we hope to have some definit< information on it by next spring.''