CARE OF PASTURES.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 271, 17 January 1929, Page 7

CARE OF PASTURES.

SOME DEFINITE OPINIONS. Harrowing and Topdressing. Heavier Stocking Needed. Standing round waiting for a meeting to start, several Walton farmers were discussing matters nearest to their hearts, those pertaining to good farm husbandry. It was somewhat refreshing ,to hear men talking about things that matter instead of horse races and racehorses and their concomitants. Two of the points under discussion were of great importance in grassland farming, and Mr. F. E. Harris, with his usual candour and carelessness of consequences as far as any opposition opinion may be concerned, threw out a couple of challenges. His first contention was flat up against the recent teachings of officers of the Department of Agriculture, for he held that the system of harrowing the ground in the winter and early spring, far from being beneficial, was actually detrimental to the pastures. The harrowing, he pointed out, cut and caused exposure of the roots of the grass to the frosts and rigours of winter—a foolish practice indeed in view of the oft-repeated advice of the nurserymen to cover up the roots of plants and protect them from the frosts. The man who harrowed all the year round usually had paddocks with tufts of grass here and there and dandelions and other flat weeds flourishing in between. Where it v/as desired to break down coarse grass the harrows were all right, and also in the autumn, but to use. harrows in the winter simply exposed the roots to ruin and destroyed the warm sole of the pasture. It was a damaging practice. He had seen better pastures where the harrows had not been used for years than on farms where the rage for harrowing was in vogue.

Mr. Harris was equally emphatic in regard to the season for topdressing. He asserted that fertiliser at £8 a ton was as profitable if used in the autumn as was the same manure at £4 a ton if used in the spring. The use of fertiliser in the spring was nearly always largely waste. A great growth of grass came away, but few farmers had sufficient stock to take advantage of the flush growth. They were using manures to promote the growth of pasture to go to waste. Except in the rare event of a drought, there was always more than enough grass in the spring time, and it would be better business to pile more manure on in the autumn.

Heavier stocking was favoured by Mr. Harris in preference to spending time and labour in mowing down coarse grass. It nearly always paid to buy hoggets to eat down the rough stuff, disposing of them when that object had been achieved. Thus the keeping of the gras% short could be effected in a profitable manner. Heavy autumn manuring and heavy stocking would give the host rhms.