The Mesquite War

In the Southwest, cattlemen wage a relentless war against mesquite, a ragged, bushlike tree. It chokes out the grazing grass, hides cattle at roundup time. Cattlemen have attacked it with fire, bulldozer and assorted chemicals. But it more than holds its own. Texas and Oklahoma alone have an estimated 71 million acres of it. Last week Dow Chemical Co. announced that, after three years of intensive testing, it had a chemical that could win the mesquite war. The killer: 2,4,5-T (short for trichlorophenoxyacetic acid).

The man who has done most of the testing of 2,4,5-T is Texas State Agronomist Charles Fisher. Back in 1938, Texas agriculture officials gave Fisher his assignment: learn how to kill mesquite. "They gave me $300, a team of mules, a wagon and a hand to help me one day a week," said Fisher. "We went through everything. At the start it was the old hand grubbing. That just cost too much. Then we tried coal oil. That worked fine, but it still cost too much. Then heavy-gear machinery and bulldozers. They cost too much, too."

During the war years, chemists from outside the state began taking notice of Fisher's experimental substation near Lubbock. The first sample of 2,4,5-T for tests on mesquite ("just enough to put in your hat") was delivered to him in 1945 by Dow Chemical Co. Later American Chemical Paint, which holds the original patent on 2,4,5-T, and Du Pont joined in. Today all three firms manufacture the chemical. Fisher started testing it on 80 five-acre plots, went on to larger areas which he sprayed from a plane at leafing time. In three to ten days, the leaves yellowed. The following year the mesquite failed to leaf again, but grass underneath the mesquite was not affected. Spraying with 2,4,5-T is inexpensive: $3.50 to $4 an acre. Last year, experiments on 300,000 acres were so successful that Fisher and staff propose to spray 1,000,000 acres this year.

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