MANURING GRASS LAND.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 629, 20 December 1913, Page 3

MANURING GRASS LAND.

While every farmer recognises that cropping exhauEts the soil, and that it is necessary to supply constituents of which the'soil has been robbed, or which it is actually deficient, few consider the action of animals in this respect. In dairying, for a milch cow producing 60001b of milk in a season removes, Professor Wrightson estimates 1.2!b of phosphoric acid, besides what is stored up in the calf. He considers that, if it requires one and a-half acres of English pasture to keep a cow, she will remove as much phosphoric acid per acre as is removed by corn-growing on the four-course system, Grass land then is robbed by grazing animals, as readily as is arable land by a crop: but in the latter case the practice is to restore what has been taken away. Northern farmers have learned that a liberal application of superphosphates to the wheat crop, besides aiding the crop, gives very tangible results in the pasture afterwards. A vigorous growth of clovers and other nutritious fodder plants invariably follows when the land is thrown out. On the other hand, where land has been devoted to dairying for a number of years, the better grasses disappear and coarser kind? take their place. The same occurs with sheep. Just as in cropping, where growing the one crop in the same ground year after year, results in the spread of diseases peculiar to that Dlant, so grazing continuously affords every help to animal diseases. A leading veterinarian some years ago pointed out to Western district dairymen that their losses with cows through cripples was due to want of phosphates "in their feed. It is hardly likely that any manuring of grasses will be'attempted on large areas anywhere; but on dairy farms, if the industry is to be carried on profitably for a length of time, this matter must be considered, The obvious remedy is to adopt a practice of mixed farming, whereby the dairy herd will benefit in two ways. Fodder crops should be grown in a rotation for feeding the cows, and by manuring these heavily the pastures to follow will also benefit. It is no use ' endeavouring to improve the milking qualities of the herd unless their proper feeding is also attended to. — Australasian.