FARM AND DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 93, 15 May 1909, Page 5

FARM AND DAIRY

BETTER PASTURES. .V THE PROBLEM OF IMPROVEMENT. S The problem of giving a better cover- 5( ing to tlif unploughablc pasture lands of New Zealand is one of importance. On arable land the renewal of the pasture is achievable bv ploughing and re-seecl-iii-f. But this method is not practicable on the rolling or steep-to country on which manv of New Zealand's sheep depend for pasture. In the early stages, when the bush...hail been .newly burned and there was a soft covering of charred v vegetation to mulch the son" and nurse t the crop into maturity, the starting of \ the pasture was relatively simple. But s these aids of Nature come to the far- b mer's call only once in the lifetime of y the farm, and" when the renewal of the a decrepit pasture is' contemplated in t later years it is with a hard-trodden, n unmulchtd, much-flooded surface soil that the farmer has to deal. How shall ii he, in such a case, renew the herbage! n Perhaps, if one were to investigate close- a ly on some of the pastoral areas of New « Zealand, he would find that the bare o places constitute quite one-half of the * surface, and_cvcn that grass which I. covers' the balance show* the debility of 3 age. If such land could be covered with t the rich growth which characterised it 1 in the first and second years after the "> burn the flocks could be doubled with- s out overstocking. , Apparently there is one simple, cfjiec- t tual wav of accomplishing this trans- c formation—and only one. Jl is Nature's <■ wav. as described years ago by the Covernment Biologist, Mr. T. W. Kirk. ' '•.Nature's paddock" k resown with new 1 s'eed every year, and a new crop of i young, vigorous grasses takes the place 1 of the old. On man's paddock, on the | I contrary, every effort of the owner ,i directed towards preventing this reseeding. The constant grazing of stock has the effect of nursing and guarding the old plants against competition from j vigorous offspring. It might almost be sai'd that the old gras,' plants are pining and pleading to be allowed to breed and die; but man forbids them. Under the everlasting nibbling of stock no seed is formed and cast, no new grasses spring up where old grasses are waiting to die, and nothing but the most tenacious of the original plants, many years old, have possession of the pastures. This is the farmer's way, and it is unnatural and ' disastrous. The point will be emphas- ' feed if we consider what would happen 1 to our dairy herds' if no calves were allowed ti be reared or evn born. Very soon there would be no dairy herds left. No poitltrv-fannei' makes money who ilcos not rear young stock to displace his old birds; no sheep-farmer goes on for eve r breeding anil shearing from his old original ewes. Just as surely do the grasses of a pasture need to be replenished at proper intervals'. Tn order to follow Nature's way Hie giazier ne'eds to shut up portions of Ins ' run in the summer to allow the llower- | stalks to ripen and shed their seed. Then for a few week* the land may be thrown open again to stock, which, while eating 1 down the accumulated irmvlh. will also ' trample the seeds firmly into the soil. " This inav lie continued till spring, when ' the stock needs to be removed again for 3 a brief period to allow the new grass to ; become properly established. The 1 method involves very little loss of grazB ing. and, indeed, the loss of grazing dur- " in« the proceeding is perhaps not so " much the obstacle as is' the lack of subdividing fences on many of the sheep station". "Were Nature's way adopted in the coming summer wc would tainlv soon see vast changes In the color of trie hillsides and in the condition of the stock.—Dominion.