PASTURAGE.

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 323, 22 May 1878, Page 4

PASTURAGE.

In dealing with the subject of laying down land in grasses, whether for permanent pasturage or for alternate husbandry, due weight must be accorded to local conditions of soil and climate. Experience bas determined the inutility of sowing those grasses which thrive in the cool humid climate ol England on the arid plains of the interior, oven of the colony of Victoria; in such parts, the only introduced grasses or pasture plants which are now in favour are the chub grass, (cynodon dactylon), the bufialo grass (stenotaphrnm glabrnm), and lucerne. Amongstthe indigenous grasses •are many which will, no doubt, in time be found amenable to cultivation, and it is to these that the settler in tire interior should devote his attention it he desires to uphold the value of his station or farm. Whether the Landsborongh grass (Anthistiria niembranacea), with which theQueensland board of inquiry Unto the diseases of plants has been experimenting, will prove useful in arid country is questionable, the plant being a'native oi the tropical portion of the colony, where it attains a height ol six feet. On flow Farm, the si to of the exporimen tal culture, it has attained that height in a shortspace of time, and it is said by our Queensland contemporary to be unlike kangaroo and other grasses of this description, not coarse, but yet eminently adapted for a bay grass. The great height attained by this grass does not favour the assumption of its being adapted' for pastoral purposes out of its own special latitude. For a reliable- plant upon the plains, the Cape sheep bush (pentida virgata) is more promising, but by the aid of irrigation during the dry smsson the Landsborongh grass may be grown, or naturally during the moist-er periods of the year. In that respect probably it resembles the well-known prairie grass, which, in the three months succeeding the fifst autumn rains, attains a height of two or three feet, but in dry, summer weather, excepting upon river flats, makes an exceedingly moderate growth. It would be very desirable for collectors ol grasses to direct their attention otherwise than to the rankest growers they may chance to meet with. Observation has determined that a mixture of many kinds of grasses and herbage yields a greater amount of food, and that of a more health-supporting character, than a mixture of only two or three kinds.' Of lute years in Victoria both farmers and graziers, in ' districts where the climate was suitaols, have sown perennial rye grass alone, and have discarded all the other grasses which in Britain help to constitute a pasture. It is true that under the rough-and-ready method of laying down grasses in rogue in Victoria twenty years ago rye grass was often found, altera lapse of two or three years to be the sole occupant of land on which a mixture of a dozen or more kinds had been sown. The roughness of the laying down was, however, not the only cause of this untoward result; constant stocking was even more commonly practised at that time than it now is; the pastures were rarely subdivided, and even more rarely were they left mistocked for a single day. Could it be deemed surprising that under such conditions the finer, choicer, and more palatable grasses disappeared, and that the comparatively less attractive rye grass was left sole occupant of the laud ? From some of these old pastures we are frequently receiving specimens for nami ng of well-known English grasses whichunquestionably formed part of the mixtures originally sown, but which, under the incessant attention of the stock, have been nearly eaten oat. Itwould, of course, be ot little use to sow these mixtures again if the system .of uninterrupted stocking were continued. Those who will not take the trouble of dividing their pastures into sets of paddocks, each consisting of four or five, and regularly shift each class of stock at ,-intervals of from 10 to 14 days, according to the time of the year and other conditions, may spare themselves the trouble and expense of re-sowing in a proper manner. But those who have taken steps which will enable them to pursue a proper system of grazing husbandry may take an interest in* knowing-the kinds of mixtures employed by’ farmers at home, with a view to adapt them to some extent to Australian conditions. 'When, laud is intended to be laid down only for three years, and to be again broken up for cereals, it is not advisable to sow largely of rye grass, because that grass extracts from the soil many of the elements which are also taken up by wheat, which crop, therefore, it is. not expedient that it should precede. Farmers on the lighter qualities of wheat laud, therefore, exclude rye grass altogether from,their mixtures for alternate husbandry, and rely chiefly on clovers, cocksfoot, and catsfcail (Timothy) grass But where the soil is strong and specially adapted for wheat, the mixture following is used —viz., Italian rye grass, 91b. ; perennial rye grass, 1 Sib.•; cocldbot and Timothy, each'2lb.; yellow trefoil, lib.; Alsike clover, 21b.; annual red clover, 21b.; perennial red clover (cowgrass), 41b. ; white clover, 21b. It would, of course, be inexpedient to introduce into a pasture for alternate husbandry any plant which’would not bo destroyed by ploughing, i.e., which would be virtually a weed’in Lire ensuing wheat crop. In permanent pastures, such plants being unobjeMonahL, they may be introduced if they will minister to the.health of the stock for whose - use they are intended. Far permanent pasture the above allow-

ance of cocksfoot may be doubled, and the following additions be made; Meadow foxtail, 21b.; festucas rubra, durinscula, elatior, and pratcusis, each 21b.; poa pratensis, 21b.; chicory, 21b.; and where sheep arc to be kept Achillea millefolia (milfoil), lib. ;' sheep’s parsley, lib.; and on dry soils plantago lanceolate, lib. The Italian rye grass may be altogether omitted from permanent pastures. Under a proper system of subdivision, and shitting of the stock, there is no reason to exclude prairie grass from permanent pastures. Ib is one of the true perennial grasses, but owing to the fondness of stock for it it soon disappears from ground which is constantly depastured. A few pounds may with advantage;be. added to any mixture whether for -alternate - husbandry or pennanerd pasturage, which is intended to be properly treated.— -N. Z. Times.