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Problems, Progress and Organization of Weed Control in Continental Europe
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 June 2017
Extract
At the Third British Weed Control Conference in 1956 I had the pleasure to discuss weed control research and development in Sweden (3). Some of the statements I made at that time will be used as a background to this paper. It was emphasized that there has been continuous change in weed control methods since World War I depending on the introduction of chemical weed killers but also on improved methods for cultivating and using the lands. Use of chemicals have brought with it changes in the weed flora meaning that certain weeds which were not serious in earlier days have now become a menace to the farmers. This brings with it a need for new chemicals with other weed killing properties. But it also brings with it a need for new cultivating methods and a better crop sequence. Cultivated plants are influenced by the chemicals. The effect on the cultivated plants depends on the stage of development of these plants. In uneven fields the harmful effect can be serious as there are always some plants that are sensitive at the time of spraying. The effect of the chemicals may depend on the purity of the acids. In MCPA, for example, the percentage of the 4–isomer, i.e. the 2–methyl–4–chlorophenoxyacetic acid, is important. It should be 95 per cent or slightly above as shown by åberg (1). The after effect of chemicals in the soils may be longer and more severe under northern conditions than under southern. For the choice of crops this must be considered. Thus there is no doubt that today, more than at any earlier period, weed control is a crop production problem. It can not be treated without considering crop production problems. Sometimes there is a feeling over in our part of the world that since the end of World War II chemicals and their properties have been emphasized too much in weed control discussions. Chemicals are, no doubt, important, but they can never get the place they are entitled to, unless our research work in weed control pays attention also to biology and ecology of those plants that we treat; cultivated plants as well as weeds. I believe we are in Europe thinking more about this particular end of the weed control work than you need to do over here. We usually have small farms with a number of different crops on each one of them. Thus we must learn to apply our chemical weed killers or use our cultivated methods in different ways for each one of these crops. For economical reasons and with regard to the supply of food and feed we need high yields per hectare. Every measure on a farm must be chosen with this in mind. Our problems, progress and organization of weed control must then be seen against the background I have now tried to give you.
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- Copyright © 1958 Weed Science Society of America
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