WEED CONTROLS

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27705, 8 July 1955, Page 13

WEED CONTROLS

National Conference Opens

26 SPEAKERS TO DISCUSS PROBLEMS

(New Zealand. Press Association) HAMILTON, July 6. The latest methods of weed control are being discussed by experts from all parts of the Dominion at the eighth annual New Zealand weed control conference, which opened in the Winter Garden, Hamilton, today. Twgpty-six speakers will discuss various aspects of weed control during the three-day conference. Today’s session dealt specifically with the control t>f weeds in pasture. Aerial spraying will be discussed tomorrow, and reference will be made to the potentialities of helicopter spraying.

Visitors to the conference today were welcomed by Mr P. B. Lynch, crop experimentalist in the Department of Agriculture, Wellington, who is presiding.

Mr Lynch also welcomed four overseas visitors—Mr I. T. Ward, managing director, and Dr. H. P. Allen, chief botanist of Plant Protection, Ltd., Fernhurst. England; Mr S. W. Preston, of the application research department of Timbrol, Ltd., Australia; and Mr B. D. Robinson, of the Merrindale Research Laboratory. Melbourne. Dr. Allen will address the conference later in the week. He has been responsible for the development of many of the selective weedkillers now in world-wide use. Mr Preston will speak on current weed problems in Australia.

For the first time since New Zealand weed conferences were inaugurated eight years ago, the speakers will include a woman. She is Miss Shona Maclean, a young research officer attached to the Department of Agriculture in Wellington. Miss Maclean will speak on special trials conducted to examine the comparative effect of weedkillers on clover species. The conference will discuss not only the control of weeds in pastures and farm crops, but also how best they can be controlled in drains, lawns, and playing greens.