RAGWORT-KILLING COST
SODIUM CHLORATE PRICES MINISTER’S INVESTIGATION Press Association WELLINGTON", Tuesday. According to a statement made today by the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. G. W. Forbes, considerable interest has been aroused as the result of the publication by the Department of Agriculture of its important discovery that spraying with a solution of sodium chlorate is an effective and cheap method of destroying ragwort. “I am receiving numerous inquiries as to cost, and as to where the material can be procured,” said the Minister, “and it is therefore necessary for me to supplement the report with some further information. I have been making inquiries regarding the probable cost of sodium chlorate in the Dominion, and am now in receipt of a cablegram from the High Commissioner stating that the f.o.b. cost of sodium chlorate from British ports is about £22 a ton. “At this figure the material should be sold in New Zealand at a price within the reach of most of our settlers, as lib will be sufficient for from four to eight gallons of spray, according to the height of the ragwort plants. “The spraying method, so far as the material is concerned, can be looked upon as a very cheap one. On moderately infested land it should cost only a few pence an acre, but where the ragwort is thick it may run up to 5s or more.” “Some time ago, when I realised that sodium chlorate was likely to prove an effective means of control, I placed an order for five tons of the material, and this will arrive in New Zealand in a few weeks’ time. The proposal is to use it for demonstration purposes in all ragwort-infested districts, so as to show farmers how and in what strengths the material should be used. “The experimental work of the past season has clearly shown that the most effective time to control ragwort by sodium chlorate is in the spring months, and the demonstration trials that are in contemplation will be started in the North Island early in August.”
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Bibliographic details
Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 971, 14 May 1930, Page 11
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343RAGWORT-KILLING COST Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 971, 14 May 1930, Page 11
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