Ragwort Pest

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 68, 13 December 1932, Page 11

Ragwort Pest

Sir, —The writer, after some two years' experience of fighting with the ragwort nuisance, has come to the conclusion that the most effective method of dealing with this pest is not to tackle it in its early' growth, -when the roots arc long and tender. and have a firm grip of the soil, but to wait till the plant blooms. Strange to say, with maturity, the roots shrink and become more wiry and less liable to break off. They appear to lose their grip on the soil, and. are thus able to be plucked clean out of the ground. If pulled prematurely, part of the long tender rootbreak off and remain in the soil, and start a fresh growth. After being pulled, the matured plants should be piled up in a series of small circular heaps, with tbe roots outwards, and the yellow blooms inwards, i.C., the flowers covered up from the sun’s rays, otherwise there is a dan-' ger of the blooms ripening and the seed spreading. Last year part of my and my neighbour's sections on the Hutt River bank above the Moonshine bridge were a blaze of yellow, and I got busy. In the course of less than two hours I pulled up over 4000 separate ragwort plants, which came out of the ground as easily as carrots — in some cases where the roots were deeply embedded, through the cutting down of the plants in the previous season, it was necessary to use a gardener’s fork to loosen the roots. It has occurred to me that by using some of ihe surplus boy labour undez proffer supervision, at a cost of some 3d or Gd per thousand plants pulled, this ragwort nuisance could be most effectively dealt with at a minimum of cost, and far more economically and satisfactorily than by the acid process or by spraying. —I am. etc.. C.W.P. Wellington. December 10.