THE GRASSING OF BUSH LANDS.

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 89, 26 January 1892, Page 2

THE GRASSING OF BUSH LANDS.

TO THE'EDITOR OF THE STAIJ. Sir—-In your leader of the 16th instant you gave for the benefit of novices in bush farming the ideas contained in the letter of a correspondent of the Pahiatua Star. A slight printer's mistake, doubtless, makes it read that the amount of seed mentioned is for five acres, bat it is evidently intended for but one, with the exception of the yarrow. This Pahiatna correspondent's mixture may be qnitea success on some of the Forty Mile Bush lands, but a careful study of bush farming shows plainly that there is no hard and fast rule to go by, different soils requiring different treatment. A prudent former will exercise great care in the matter of seed sowing, more especially on bush land, where, if bad or unsuitable seed be sown there is no chance of re-planting by means of ploughing, within twenty years. Often on a piece of land of a hundred acres' or less in extent, the nature of the soil in different parts varies to such a degree as to necessitate two or more distinct modes of sowing. At any rate a majority of the bush farms are composed of two qualities of land, viz., that on flats and that on hills. The same grasses, with few exceptions, cannot be successfully cultivated on both. Grasses that flourish on rich, moist, flat land will languish and die on the dry hill sides; while', on the other hand, some of the coarser varieties, which, if grown to ally extent on flat land, will become so rank as to be unfit for pasture, will on the foyer soil of the hills accomplish much the same desir* able end as the softer grasses on the lower levels. Having had some little experience in grassing bush lands, I venture to suggest the following mixtures i^-rFor flat land sow ten pounds of jy<e, anxt be sure it comes off old pasture,- or else it will disappear after the first or second year, and on but few soils in this disfrict will the best seed stand more than four years. Old pasture rye is much smaller than the seed grown on new burns, find is often found to contain a great quantity of clover along with it mi the togs. Bye, although it cannot be depended on as a permanent pasture, his much to recommend it, as it grows luxuriantly on new land, and prevents the growth of weeds. For flat land .eight pounds of cocksfoot, two pounds of white olovfti one.of wowgrass, one of alsyke, half a ponnd of trefoil, one pound of florin, one pound of crested dogstail, a quarter of a pound each' of rib-grass and yarrow, and if the land be moist add two pounds of timothy and two of meadow foxtail. On hills I recommend a bushel ef cocksfoot, two pounds crested dogstail, four pounds tall fescue (a most useful grass on hills), two pounds poa pratensis, two pounds white cloyer, and add rye at discretion. I am, &c, An Echo feom the Bush.