PLENTY OF GRASS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 74, 13 October 1939, Page 4

PLENTY OF GRASS

— RAIN BRINGS PASTURES AWAY CONTRAST WITH LAST YEAR "This time last year, when my sharemilker talked about the worst paddock,, I knew he meant the one where the grass had been eaten down to the roots and the bare earth was showing through. Now when he says that I know he means the paddock with the knee-deep feed." This was how a well-known Rar.gitaiki farmer described the difference between this spring and the last. The recent rains have brought feed away

in great style and producli n is rising sharply, the warm .vinny days before the weather broke having put the land in good heart. Along with the grass all other crops are responding well. Maize plantings seem to be more extensive than usual, many farmers apparently adopting the view that withi kumikumis it forms a valuable stand by and ensures the best return from, land which is not needed for grass during the flush of the season. The guaranteed price per bushel has, no doubt, also had its influence in adding to the acreage under the crop. The growth bears out the opinions of experts expressed last season that little immediate recovery could then be expected, no matter how extensively the land was manured, but that time was needed to ensure full bacterial revival and activity in the then sodden and baked pastures.. This was shown by the fact that the autumn growth was nothing remarkable, but the good winter has meant that the land has been able to stage a recovery to the normal conditions which now rule.