SODIUM CHLORATE AND LIME TREATMENT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3449, 24 November 1932, Page 5

SODIUM CHLORATE AND LIME TREATMENT.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I was glad to note in the district news of your issue of the 19th inst. that your Aria correspondent states that he had a magnificent kill with what he calls the "so-called 5 per cent, mixture." In the intermediate experimental stage I did call it that, and it was, a 5 per cent, mixture because it consisted of 1 part of sodium chlorate to 19 parts of lime, but later on I found that equally good results were obtained on all sizes of ragwort plants with a mixture consisting of 1 part of sodium chlorate to 20 parts of lime, which is a 4.75 mixture, and the one which I use and recommend as being absolutely effective if used in the quantity directed, namely a minimum of 5 \ cwt. per acre. If the plants are all small ones, that quantity pronerly distributed, is sufficient, but large plants require more than small ones, so it will readily be understood that sowing the mixture through a topdresser is not likely to give entire satisfaction because, although the small plants would all be killed, the topdresser would pass over the big plants before they had received a complete covering, and that would cause the farmer dissatisfaction and he would blame the mixture, whereas it would be his own fault for not carrying out the instructions given. My method has been proved a certain success all over the country now, so why try other ways?—l am, etc., W. E. CAYLEY-ALEXANDER. ' Pio Pio.