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Show New Chemical May Prove Boon To Canal Companies The intermountain area played play-ed guinea pig last summer for, tests for a new chemical which1 may mean tremendous savings in time, labor, and money to canal companies and irrigation-ists. irrigation-ists. The trials, conducted by water .users and reviewed by Bureau of Reclamation weed control specialists, produced impressive results in the control of water weeds that choke canals and ditches, according to an illustrated illustrat-ed article in the April issue of ine Reclamation Era, official magazine of the Bureau of Reclamation. Recla-mation. Written by W. Harold Hirst of Provo, Utah, Regional Weed Specialist for the Bureau, the article discusses the result of tests made with Benoclor 3-C a chemical developed by a naturalized natur-alized Belgian scientist after neavy moss in a pond on his New Jersey estate had claimed the lives of two swimmers. scientist, Herman Seydel found that an emulsified form of chlorinated hydrocarbon, a heav-jer-than-water chemical, would keen runn nt wat still ponds free of moss. The Bureau tests last year did Wer l11 uestions about now it may be used, Mr. Hirst but it did shw that Benoclor works rapidly, the cost is "less than average" and that control may be achieved with comparatively little time, effort, and equipment." The quantities needed to kill weeds in ditches are not sufficient suffi-cient to harm livestock or crop plants, according to tests made so far by the Department of Agri- culture, the article pointed out. Benoclor 3-C destroys the chlorophyll of plants, weeds losing los-ing their color and taking on a cooked' appearance within an hour after successful treatment It was found that within "a few' hours,' the treated plants sink to the canal bottoms and offer s little resistance to the flow of water without, however, clogging clog-ging gates, turnouts and laterals as do weeds mechanically destroyed. |