KAINIT VERSUS THISTLES

Otago Witness, Issue 3103, 3 September 1913, Page 17

KAINIT VERSUS THISTLES

WORTH EXPERIMENTING WITH. For many years, writes the manager of a big estate in Ohodan, I observed that when I gave the meadows a dressing of kainit the thistles, which were a great nuisance in some parts of the fields, showed symptoms of failing vigour, and on one occasion. when applying the manure, a Dig lot of kainit fell on a thistle growing on the edge of a meadow. Two days later, when I visited the spot, ihe thistle, vigorous before, was half dead, which could bo attributed to nothing else than the effect of the notash salt.

From noticing this fact I was induced to try the effect of applying a good pinch of kainit to the other thistles in the field, with a result that was quite surprising, because in a week’s time not only the leaves of the weeds, but also the roots, were decaying. The question then was, Would the effect be permanent? So the field was carefully watched the following seasons. No more thistles appeared, but in their place there was thick grass. After this thistles kinds were strewn with kainit, and 24 hours after the application began to wither, and in a week’s time were quite destroyed.

The destruction of thistles in this way seems so simple and effective that it Is worth trying. Tho time for the operation is when the weeds begin to grow in the spring, and, after the first out of the grass, tho kainit should be applied to the centre of the leaves. A broadcast appheation is not so effective, although when broadcasted over tho meadow in the autumn it improves she herbage. But to be effective against thistles it must be applied, as above mentioned, in the spring to each plant, or after the first cutting when the weeds begin to grow again.