DEATH TO RAGWORT

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 13, 17 January 1933, Page 9

DEATH TO RAGWORT

SCHO.OLBOYS AT WORK

There is in Taranaki, on the Toko road, .about a mile above the Toko township, a farm of about 160 acres which- until recently was literally smothered in ragwort. Apart from the fact that it was'preventing good feed growing, it spelled death to seventeen promising heifers last year. It was this which determined the owner to make an attack, the result of which would be lasting, on he weed. That attack, described by the "Taranaki Herald," is now in progress. Some timo ago a King Country farmer discovered that a mixture of sodium chlorate and lime dealt a most effective blow to the ragwort, and this is the method at present in use >at Toko. A party of nineteen New Plymouth High School boya, under the leadership of Mr. F. J. E^gleton, one of the masters, are encamped* on the farm and they spend six hours every day in furthering the attack. Owing to the heat it is necessary to divide the working hours up, .and three'periods of two hours are worked each day. The .hours are 6 a.m. to 8 a.m., 10 a.m. to 12 noon, and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The party went into camp early this month and have already covered a large area of ground. The mixture is in the approximate proportion *of nine pounds of sodium chlorate to a. hundredweight of lime. Two and sometimes three boys are engaged in the mixing: shed. ' The sodium chlorate is pounded to reduce the lumps and is then sifted. The required weight is taken and put in a concrete mixer. It was found that mixing with a shovel was a method too laborious and took to much time. The lime is then also put in the mixer, and when the preparation is complete it is bagged.

.The bags are then taken by sledge to the operating base which, .of course, is changing every day, and there dumped for the use of tho main party of boys. Each boy is armed with a tilt with a capacity of about three or four pounds, and this he fills from the' base and returns to the particular section which he is doing. The mixture is a fairly fine powder and is rprinkled on the plants by hand. The extent of ground already covered is shown by the fact that tho quantities of the component parts of the mixture already used are 16ewt of sodium chlorate and 10 tons of lime.