EXPERIMENTS WITH GRASSES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 44, 15 November 1907, Page 2

EXPERIMENTS WITH GRASSES.

THE VALUE OF BASIC SLAC. MORE ABOUT CHEWING'S FESCUE. Lincoln Collogo lias been experimenting along instructive lines with grasses. In describing tho results for benefit of Dominion readers. Mr. W. Lowrie, of the oollcge, said it was found on tho college soil prolitablo to manure (very lightly) with overy crop sown. This was found to give better results 1 tnan tho usual practice in the Old Country of heavily manuring, say, only tho forage' crops. Even in sowing out grasses with oats, the cost of manuring is returned by tho oats thomsolves, but it is also much more returned by the grass. , "I have," said Mr. Lowrio, "been using basic slag with superphosphate chiefly, and find the basic slag very suitable for much of tho college farm. I tried it with a view to recovering permanent pasture that had been down for 18 or 20 years, giving a top-dress-ing of scwt. of slag to one half of the paddock. Tho result was most markedly apparent—apparent in tho way it came into growth in the spring, apparent in its richer greenness, in the increase of the leguminous herbage, such as white clover; and m the proferenc.o which tho stock showed for the half that had been manured. Slow acting? V'os, compared with super. But it tells with the first crop. Hitherto it lias been too dear in this country, compared with super, and that has arisen from the fact that the farmers have not appreciated its value fully.'' "I am using also this year in some of tile fields, ground quick lime. Previously I had made various test 3 with slack lime, but was not satisfied that it , was remunerative. When ground it can bo put on as quicklime and sown in tho drill. The fields 011 which I applied it are looking very well this year, but it is too early to say whether, that is due to the ground quicklime or not." "Thero is a lot of work before us yet, and work that I would like to take up. Especially would I liko to determine tho stock-carrying capacity of tho . different grasses—somowhat similarly to tho experiment carried out in the North-East of linglaud, initiated by Dr. Somerville. Tho information wo want is not so much the gain from manuring as tho carrying capacity of one form of grass or mixture of grasses compared with another. 1 reckon this is one of the most important works that havo yet to bo dono. It will take somo years to test.

I havo obtained some results already, but they may bo misleading if published prematurely. Chewing-fescue? On tho College farm that variety is of no use whatever, for tho simplo reason that wo cannot get stock to oat it. It may ho true that on higher altitudes and on soils of a different typo the grass becomes more palatable. One year I put a number of hoggets upon a series of grass plots which had been laid out by the College Biologist, Dr. Hilgendorf, and to my amazement tho hoggots ate out all the other grasses to the roots, and then started eating the pino needles on tho trees that overhung the plots—with the result that four of them died from internal inflammation —before they would touch th'o chewing-fescue. Obviously it cannot havo the samo, effect in tho South, becauso tho farmers thero say it is a valuable grass. But' our experience shows how much tho character of herbage differs acirding to country."