PRAIRIE GRASS.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 October 1917, Page 3

PRAIRIE GRASS.

(By D. J. Hughes). Thoughts of this excellent and muchunderestimated and misjudged grass prompt me to pen a defence as to its worth and my own observation and experience as to its capabilities. For rapid growth after cutting or feeding it is second only to lucerne. A profuse grower right through the winter, no grass is its superior for early feed for dairy cows. For horses it is better than oaten chaff and for gallopers it improves their respiratory organs. All this in admitted by those who have grown it and used it for feeding purposes. The reply one always gets when advocating it ds that prairie grass is a good grass, but it won't last in the ground. Well, my reply is neither man nor beast will last long if treated unnaturally. If prairie grass is examined closely it is easy to see that very close feeding is against its nature. It is so sweet a grass that stock will eat into its body, so to speak, and as it is a grass which runs through the ground something like a leek it can soon be settled by sheep or any very close feeding. Dairymen would not have so many cows going wrong and dying if they used more of this grass in the winter and early spring instead of building up cows with dry hay. Now, may I give your readers my experience of tho lasting qualities of this grass for bullock fattening, cattle raising, and dairy cows. I first sowed it 32 years ago on the Manaia road, Waimate Plains, and it is to be seen there to-day holding its own despite what critics say. I also sowed it on 146 acres on burnt bush land 25 years ago on Opunake road and there it is yet. It likes sandy 'soil, people say, but there is no sand on the land I refer to. Why it ig not grown more on this side of the mountain beats me. I laid down six acres in prairie alone near Manaia last May. The quantity of seed per acre sowed was lOOlbs per acre and I had to scour all Taranaki to get this much seed. All the seed agents informed me (including tho Moumahaki State Farm expert) that only about 25 to 30 per cent, of prairie seed germinates, but I found that ninety five .per cent, of this germinated. Why? Weil, I suppose for a start I had good seed although some of it was three years old. No. That is not the only reason, People who sow it do not cover it enough. The best way to get a good take is to hand sow it on the ploughed furrow, then disc twice, harro\v : and then roll. The six acres I put down came up like oats, and when the dairy cows were put on it about the middle of August last it wag from 12 inches to 2 feet in height. I drilled it in with barley on the Barrett road, New Plymouth, last spring, and sowed grass seed by hand at the same time. I then cut the barley and thrashed it, and going over the- grass to-day I could see the prairie shooting ahead of its grass companions. I tried <to sow the prairie at Manaia with the jdrill but it will not run by itself but, barley, wheat, or oats it runs splenjdidly.

. lii conclusion my tip to dairymen is to try a few acres of this splendid feeding grass for their early coming in and ncalved cows, treat it properly, and they will not regret it and the cows would say "ditto" if they could speak.