War Against Ragwort

Northern Advocate, 19 July 1938, Page 5

War Against Ragwort

i Special to “Northern Advocate .”l AUCKLAND. This Day.

Lor 1 he? ih'st time in the world, a

formula giving the amount of poison material in ragwort has been worked out, and it was clone by a New Zealand scientist. This information was given this morning by Dr. E, Marsden, secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, who arrived in Auckland by the limited express on a three-day visit. He .will return south on Wednesday morning by aeroplane.

Roots Left Aiive,

Dr. Marsden said that a good deal of attention had been given by the officers of his department to ragwort. In one area, the parasite introduced to work on the seeding flower had been tried, and in. other areas sodium chlorate had been employed. It had been found that the latter method killed the plant above the ground but left the roots alive. Something more. then, v/as necessary. Another avenue of approach lee io the* formula already mentioned. The object was to work out the content of the toxic principle at different stages of growth in different soils and when the plant had been mad-.- into hay or ensilage. “Useful awd Promising.” When that was done, the services 01 the Department ox Agriculture were enlisted, and the problem was now being approached from the management point of view by the department. Dr. Marsden said that his department was doing the chemical side. “li we can find cut when the jproblem is most serious—that is, at what stage of growth—the Department of Agriculture can evolve the best way of managing the plant.” he added, Mr David Miller was optimistic about his parasitical insect. It looked. Dr. Marsden said, as if the best approach was that of management. ‘The results of our research,” he added, “are extremely useful and promising.”