GRASSLAND FERTILITY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 14, 22 May 1939, Page 6

GRASSLAND FERTILITY

ACTIVITY OF PASTURES "THE PRINCE OF FEEDS" "There is one good tiling aboul bad times. Had times breed pioneers% and there are pioneers in the utilisation of grassland areas and grass in almost every district today'' states Professor Sir George Stapledon director of the famous Rothamstead Experimental Station. "All the pioneers realise one thing in particular, and that is the manurial value of the sod. "Manage the sod right and both the herbage and the fertility of the fields will look after themselves. That is the essence of modern grassland management and of the conservation of fertility all over the farm. "A matted sod nine-vtenths dead is no good to man or beast, and to-day is a menace to national security anil safety. A good sod must be abundantly limed, abundantly full of active clover roots, well aerated and innocent -of stagnant water, and above all, one well and eonstantlv impregnated with urine and the drop pings of animals. Such a sod is at store of energy capable of yielding lush grass or a succession of arable | crops. "About ploughing and resort to alternate husbandry, and the ley, my thesis in this, and the more I travel and the more I see, and the more I see here in the Midlands as much as anywhere else, the more certain, I becomc that I am bone dead right. Boi\e dead right in what I conceive to be the national interest, and that in the long run must also be the farmers' interest. The Prince of Feeds. "Good grass is the prince of feed* —good hay, silage, dried grass, all these ?<re essential, especially when one thinks in terms of minerals, vitamins and the like. On all scores we must dodge too great dependence r>n imported feeding stuffs. It is only thp sods of the very best permanent grass on the most favourable joils that yield up their full energy In grass leafage, and then only if superbly well managed, and supported bv the making of silage or dried grass. All others must be ploughed un regularly, and crops taken and good leys formed, if all the energy is to be cashcd. While again it is only on the very best soils that livs sods can be maintained without constant resort to the heaviest of drag, ging and scratching. "We want tractors, scratching and dragging implements dashing about furiously in every grassland district in England* Always sods sought to be improved by liming ? slagging, dragging and the like up to a reasonable cariwjng capacity, with consequent urination and dunging before they are ready to plough. WINTED FEED PROSPECTS FOUR DISTRICTS REVIEWED Pastures in North Taranaki have responded well to the (rains of the past month. Although feed is not plentiful, this district, by comparison .with other parts of the North Island, has quite fair prospects for the winter. Feed in the Wairs.rapa piesents a difficult problem and arrange ments are in hand to obtain sunplies of winter fodder, if any is obtainable, from outside sources. Although there has been a fair flush of feed throughout the Gi> borne district since the recent heavy rain, the grass available now is not expected to make up entirely for th" laek of growth during the previous months. The growth on the hilU is not so good as on the flats and is unlikely to come away to any extent from now on. in view of the cold conditions setting in. A number of far, mers therefore, are taking the precaution of conserving some of the present growth for later on in the season, when it will be needed more than at present. Despite the shortage of feed eiv farms throughout the Waikato during the pa, st few months, stock generally have been healthy and there, has been less disease than usual. Farmers in the Waimarino district are worried at the prospect of a shortage of feed dialing the winter months. Though the rains of April "relieved the feed position consider, fibly, it is felt that they came too late to promote a sufficient growth before the arrival of cold weather.