Abstract
BRACKEN–INFESTED land can be made very suitable to potato growing provided the proper methods of cultivation are used. Such land is normally light and would be easy to work if it were not for the formidable amount of roots and surface trash that must first be cleared. Trials (described by I. P. Trant, J. Min. Agric., 48, 109;. 1941) have been carried out on three areas near Welshpool to determine the best methods for preparing this type of land for a potato crop, and much valuable information has been obtained. Autumn ploughing followed by spring cultivation and immediate plant ing proved to. be expensive and unsatisfactory, as the bracken roots prevented the proper working of the land. Gyro–tilling in the spring after the ground had been ‘pre–disked’ killed off the bracken quite well, but it also was expensive and did not succeed in clearing the trash. A third method, however, though slower than the other two, gave most promising results and at considerably reduced cost. In this case the bracken was ploughed during June and July when it had attained its maximum growth and its reserve of food in the underground portions was at a minimum, a special device for burying the tall fronds being employed. The land was then worked and sown to rape, which was fed off to sheep during the autumn, thereby consolidating and manuring the ground. In the following spring, disk harrows and cultivators produced an excellent tilth, ploughing being omitted as it was likely to bring to the surface rubbish that was best left buried. Potato planting could then be satisfactorily carried out.
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Bracken–infested Land for Potato Cultivation. Nature 148, 690 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148690a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148690a0