ON PERMANENT PASTURES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2598, 26 December 1893, Page 2

ON PERMANENT PASTURES.

The following is the second part of Mr M. W. Moore's paper, read at the last meeting of the Geraldine Farmers' Club, which deals with permanent pastures : There is one very great difference in the Bysteui adopted here for the laying down of land to permanent pasture, and in the plan adopted in the Old Country. At Home no land would be so laid dowa until it had been brought to the highest possible state of fertility and cultivation* It was considered one of the most important operations in agriculture, one requiring the greatest care, and on which no expense should be spared in order to ensure good results. The land waa thoroughly well worked, as free from all weeds as possible, and the soil worked down to a fine tilth almost like garden soil. A good and judicious mixture of grasses was put in, and plenty of them, and then after the grass had grown it was very carefully grazed for the first few years, chiefly with light cattle, until the grasses were thoroughly established. All this was thought very necessary, because grass land well laid down was intended to laßt perhaps for ever, at any rate, for very many years, and the longer it remained the better it was supposed to be. You, no doubt, all know the story of some Americans who on visiting Oxford were greatly struck with the wonderfully rich grass on the lawns in the college gardens, and who asked the gardener how he managed to get such close, rich, velvety turf. The old fellow, knowing where thoy came from, replied " Why, Sir, we rolls 'em and we mows 'em for a thousand years." Grass land laid down at Home is intended to last, if not for a thousand years, at any rate for a considerable time, and so all this great care bestowed upou its growing is neceseary. Out here, on the contrary, we bestow a very small amount of trouble a 3 a rule in sowing The usual plan has been to go on cropping and oropping the laud as long ua it will grow a crop that will pay, and <ibeu put it into grass to give it a spell; Mien we aow short-lived grass seeds, --"manent grasses; then ws instead oi stock it with sheep before u v« a -- stocked at all, and after having some of it pulled up by the roots aud some of it eaten bare, so as to let the summer itif and nor' westers get well into the rooti* of what is left, we turn round and abuse the climate or the soil, or anything except ourselves, and say we cannot grow permanent grasses here. Of course the climate and the soil have an enormous amount to do with the success of grass, but the manner of sowing it and the proper treatment afterwards have quite as much to do with it, and I cannot help thinking that if we gave the subject proper attention »u 4 care that we could grow very

good permanent grass out here, and that, considering the price of grain, it would pay us very well to do so, on a certain proportion of every farm. By proper attention, I mean by enriching the soil as far as we can, either by an immediate applicatiau of artificial manures, or by the previous growth of crops that have been treated with manures, which, perhaps, will not be altogether exhausted by working the land thoroughly and well, and by taking the greatest care to have the land thoroughly clean and free from weeds by sowing permanent grasses and not stinting the seed, and übove all by not stocking too soon and never overstocking at all. It is quite true that most farmers do not want permanent grass; that they only want to lay land down for a few years, say three or four years, and then break it up again. Where this is the case no doubt the plan adopted now is sufficient, it is comparatively inexpensive, it gives' a fair amount of feed for the time required, and when not run out can be broken up and put in turnips or oats, and after a few years cropping put down again. But I am not proposing to deal with this plan, which.is in its way a useful one on most farms, and can be adopted on all that portion of a farm kept for cropping. But I am suggesting that it would be a useful and a profitable thing to have on every farm a certain proportion of the laud best adapted for it laid down to permanent pasture which should not be disturbed, the remainder being kept for any rotation of crops, or any two or three years seeding that the owner desires. And I propose to read Mr Outhwaite's paper showing the plan he adopted himself, and to add a few remarks myself on the description of grasses to sow and the - quantities. Mr Outhwaite describes veiy plainly the working he thought necessary to give to the laud, and on that point I do not think I need say anything; it shows what a good practical man thought necessary, and farmers must modify it to suit themselves, always remembering that if they really want " permanent and good clean grass" they must be prepared to do what is necessary to obtain it, and that if they stint the work and the seed they must, in the event of failure, be prepared to bestow a little bit of abuse on themselves, as well as some on the climate or the nor-'westers. (Mr Moore here read Mr Outhwaite's paper). You will see by this paper that Mr Uuthwaite subjected his land to a very severe w orking. it was first ploughed, and as he says " made thoroughly clean," and then sown with turnips. Anyone who has had any experience of growing turnips in the Old Country will know the enormous amount of work expended on the crop, not only in working the ground, and manuring and opening up drills previous to sowing,but also in thinuiug, and constantly horsehoeing and earthing up afterwards, the crop being looked upon as a cleaning crop. This was fed off with the sheep, then ploughed and harrowed down to a fine tilth with drag harrows, then through two months it was constantly horsehoed to kill all weeds, then ploughed again lightly, sown with bone dust, and harrowed over and over again, then sown, brush harrowed, and finally rolled. I will leave you to say whether you consider all this work absolutely necessary or not, at any rate if thero is a s'■ fault it is on the right side. Now with regard to the description of seed and the ' quantities, I want first to draw your attention to the indigenous grasses of New Zealand, none of which are at present cultivated, and most of which I fear are rapidly dying out, and being replaced by, in some cases worthless foreign grasses and weedß. It does not by any means follow that because a grass is called " an English grass" that therefore it is necessarily a good feeding grass nor necessarily better than the native grasses. In fact, you will very generally hud in any country you go to that the indigenous grasses are in some ways best adapted to the climate aud the aoil; they may not all be better feeding grasses than foreign grasses, but they may be, and generally are, better adapted to the country, and in that country will probably be more permanent, standing the vicissitudes of weather and recovering themselves quicker and better after being closely cropped, or after suffering from extreme drought or cold. There was a book by Mr John Buchanan published in 1880" by the Colonial Museum and Geological Survey Department entitled ** Manual of Indigenous Grasses," which gives a valuable description and illustrations of the native grasses, to some of which I should like to call your attention. "The meadow rice grass," (microlcenv stiprides), he states, is a pasture grass, grown at present in the north and middle parts of New Zealand, and in Australia, where it is reported as a good fattening grass, growing equally well on light soils and clay, but thriving best on mowt soils, worthy of cultivation as an early spriug grass. The long hair plume grass (dichelachne crinita), good for hay and for rich moist land, all the varieties valuable pasture grasses. The slender bent (acjvostis parpi flora) is a valuable grass, common to the upland pastures of the (South Island. • There is often prejudice against the use of any bent grasses, but Johnson in his "Farmers' Encyclopedia" says, "Let any proprietor of a rich ancient pasture divest part of it of these grasses entirely, and the value of the plants will be demonstrated in the comparative loss of late and early herbage." The toothed bent (agrostis cemula) is much recommended as forming a proininevik grass on dry sandy or stoay soils, most abundant oa dry clay land, and probably perennial if prevented from ripening into seed by graz ing. The pilose bent grass (agrostis pilosa) is valuable for late and early feed. The Oat-like bent (agrostis avenovaes) abundant in South Island, freely eaten by all stock, foliage short and close. None of this family, however, will stand overstocking, or the finer kinds will be killed out by the sun and frosts. With regard to the tussac grasses, Mr Buchanan states <iA " on improving land intended exclusively V for pastoral purposes, or for raising stock, in districts exposed to cold winds, it may be questioned whether the entire destruction of native grasses, especially the larger tussac kinds, is judicious, as their conservation, or culture where they do ji >t exis*-., would certainly prove an clcmont of profit, not only from their own intrinsic value as food, but also from their sheltering all kinds of stock, as well aa protecting from nipping winds the smaller graßse3, which should form the bulk of every pasture. . The indigenous grasses of New Zealand are undoubtedly more permanent and fattening than the introduced grasses of cultivation, and it plight prove expedient in many districts to adept a hilled system by which the larger tussac grasses might be used as gljelter, He specially recommends the jflaviieem) and the purple awhed oat gras3 (clanthonia pilosa), anrJ says that although many grasses are permanently destroyed bv overstocking, the dantfyonhis pqsho!* an Inherent "reou'perative power, which enable them to renew their growth and spread whenever the destroying power is remoyed. Qf the poas, he common s<4dpQ,a, (jQQt&aweps)

is the most abundant native grass in New Zealand and one of the most valuable, resisting drought well, and ensuring a certain amount of permanent pasture; coleusis poa (poet, colensoi), very permanent and closely cropped by all stock ; the brown flowered poa (poa Ivndsagi) the same. Frond fescue (festuca duimscula) is valuable, and occupies a prominent place in ail mountain pastures, is productive in all soils, and has a great capacity of adaptation to both drought and moisture, highly recommended as a pasture grass. I think these remarks of such an authority a 3 Mr Buchanan show that there are some very valuable native grasses worthy of cultivation and of sowing with others in permanent pastures, and I think farmers' clubs would be doing good work if they urged on the Government the advisobility of cultivating them and in distributing the seed at the cost price to farmers. This could be done on the State farms which are being established, or in any way the Minister for Agriculture might think best. If we have such a department and such a Minister let us make use of it and of him. Farmers' clubs could, I think, give the department many valuable suggestions and hints as to the way in which it could be made of great benefit to the country. You will notice in Mr Outhwaite's paper that he agrees with Professor Way's receipt as to the kinds of grasses that should be sown for permanent pasture, and only disagrees with the quantities which he apparently thinks should be increased. The first kinds mentioned are ryegrass and cocksfoot—one bushel of the former aud half a bushel of the latter. There is a great difference of opinion as to the value of ryegrass as a permanent grass. Some say that if properly treated it becomes perennial; others that it is perennial as long as its seed is never allowed to ripen; others, again, that it only lasts for three or four and then dies out, and that as its roots are all on the surface it exhausts the surface soil and is easily destroyed by drought. I have seen it die out in three years, and I have known it to last for forty years and be as good in the end as in the beginning. In the former case it was sown with a crop, was cut for seed, was fed off with sheep at once, suffered from frost and heat, and disappeared. In the latter it was sown, I think, without a crop, was never fed for years by sheep, was sown in a moist. i climate, never suffered from great heati' nor frost, and is a good pasture now and i likely to be for mauy more years. Mr de Laune, who haa at Home given a great deal of attention to the subject of permanent grasses, condemns the use of ryegrass, and uses cocksfoot as the principal grass; and I think that while in some climate 3 ryegrass will last for many years, that in most of our country here it is not to be depended on for any length of time. For two or three years seeding it is very valuable, and gives a quantity of feed, butt for permanent pasture I should use but \ little of it. As a sort of general rule as to the value of grass, Mr de Laune states " that all grasses that are soft and woolly, and covered with hirsute hairs (Yorkshire fog, for instance) and also all the blades of which, when drawn through the fingers feels rough, are inferior. Many of the most valuable grasseß, owing to their method of propagation do not arrive at their full productive powers for some years. Some are creeping grasses, throwing out long stems, which throw up new plants from the joints, the only one of which of any value is I belieye florin, and the most abominable of all is well known as couch grass. Otherß, such as timothy increase by sending up small shoots close to the stem of last year's plant, and sometimes produce small tubers like little bulbs, from which plants spring, Others again hie cocksfoot increases by sending out young stems at the base of the main stem, each of which becomes a separate plant. Meadow fescue Mr de Laune states, at first forms small tufts of 0 flowering stems, and also stems that do not bear flowers till the following year, when it sends qnt short shoots from the base, which come up around it at the distance of one or two inches, but none bear flowers the first year. Each in the following year becomes a plant, so that the grass does not become fully productive for some years. In case any of you should ever desire to purchase meadow fescue, I should like to show you how it can be distinguished from rye grass, which is very often sold for meadow fescue owing to the great similarity of the seed, and which of course is not worth nearly as much in, the market. The only distinction |s tfyat ■fche small stajk in the interior of the rye grass is almost triangular; in the fescue it is cylindrical, a small difference but an important que, foxtail grows in a similar manner to meadow fesdueTajjtl is supposed to take four year§ to Arrive at perfection. Botfa are Valuable for perlnaheiio pastures as they are able to increase underground unharmed by stock, and by growing round and through the other grasses they help to form the dense sward so valuable for pasture. Crested dogstail grows in small tufts. It does not give a large quantity of food, but materially helps by filling up all interstices aurong larger seed and plants, It increases rapidly from seed, and therefore it is not necessary to sow such a large quantity of ib. Most authorities agree that the most* valuable grasses for permanent pastures} are cocksfoot, timothy, meadow fescue, meadow foxtail, and crested dogstail. But there is much difference of opinion on the subject of ryegrass and some others. We must not forget that many of these take some years to arive at thei? full productive becau.s§ va&ny farmers attack too rough importance to the appearance of their grass the first year, and that perhaps is one reason why many prefer ryegrass. It gives such a quantity of feed so soon. For permanent pasture, however, we must look to the future. Anyone wanting to study the appearance and habits of the different kinds of grasses, to see when they flower, the colour of their leaves, etc., cannot do better than sow patches of each in some clean ground in a garden and carefully watch them; noting when they come into flower, how long they are before they seed, and how long they remain at their best feeding value, and which kind seems to suit the soil and climate best. It would be wise, too, to cut some of eaoh before flowering each year, and leave some to ripen their seed, so as to see which grasses thrive be3t as perennials for pasturage, and which suffer most by being allowed to go to seed. By this means a farmer wi!l be able to ascertain what are the most suitable kinds to sow on hia farm for perennial pasture or for hay, always remen}b,t>r4»|? that probably tfte, $ Q e? grasses will not thrive so ifyeite conditions as they would if protected by the larger sorts. 1 hope to try this experiment myself another year. I have mentioned already the different© of opinion that exists aB to the perennial nature of ryegrass. Since writing that 1 have come across a very interesting paper in one of the journals of the Royal Agricultural Society, written by Mr Fream, of the Down ton Agri- i i culture J

herfage of old grass lands." There is an enormous amount of information in it. (lo be ontinued.)