DISEASE IN SWEDES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 166, 15 June 1936, Page 5

DISEASE IN SWEDES.

METHODS OF CONTROL. Per Press Association. MASTERTON, June 12. Mr W. Lee Martin (Minister of Agriculture) made an announcement to-day regarding the prevalence and methods of control of the disease attacking swedes. Ho said the disease, known as “mottled heart” or “brown heart” of swedes, had become extremely troublesome during the past season. Much attention had been paid overseas to a similar disease and satisfactory control measures had been suggested. The Fields Division of the Department of Agriculture had followed up the overseas work by carrying out experiments in various parts of the Dominion, and, although the results had not yet been completed, they were sufficiently encouraging to permit him to make a statement.

The treatment, which had been put under trial and which had been found very satisfactory by the Fields Division, consists of applying 10lb. per acre of ordinary commercial borax to the land at the* time of sowing. The deficiency of boron in the soil is apparently'the cause of a number of diseases of crops, and it is of interest to farmers to know that suc.li a simple and cheap remedy is so effective in controlling this particular disease of swedes. In order to facilitate the application - of such a small quantity of borax it is considered that the material should be mixed with fertiliser without loss of efficiency from the treatment. Too great a concentration of borax should be avoided, however. If the manure is being sown in contact with the seed and where the crop is being sown by means of a ridger, which allows of the fertiliser being sown both with and below the seed, the borax should be mixed with the fertiliser, being delivered not actually in contact with the seed so as to avoid germination injury. Where turnips are sown under usual methods there appears no danger of such injury if not more than 41b. of borax is mixed with each hundredweight of fertiliser.