PASPALUM DILATATUM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7968, 20 February 1906, Page 3

PASPALUM DILATATUM.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS,

The cultivation of Paspalum Dilitatum is engaging the attention of the farmers in the North Island of this oolony to some extent. There ia no doubt that the grass will become moat pcpular. About twelve years ago this grass was introduced by Mr Edwin Secoombe on to the .Richmond River, New South Wales Mr Soccombe demonstrated practically its enormous value,to the district as a fodder for dairy stook and, to-day, owing to the advent of Paspalum Dil'tatum the scrub districts of Richmond and Orara are very prosperous dairying centres in Australia, f'aspalum has proved .to be an excellent grass for dairying and fattening, and animals generally prefer it to any other grass, eating it right down to tfce roots. It grows vigorously during summer and makes a eplendid winter sward. .It is probably the best grass known to science in of the conditions of the Australian and the JNorth Island of New Zealand soil and climate. The grass is succulent from stem to head, makes excellent hay, yeildiug enormous crops; stands any amount of grazing; stook eat every part of it and sheep thrive on it. Record yields obtained have been from cows fed on this grass, it will flourish in any kind of climate and frost or floods will not kil l it. *** > * * * A young settler, writing from the Bay of Islands with regard to Paspalum Dilitatum grows on scrub land:—"l believe it Is going to outran everything here, for it spreads like ti tree. A,ll I did was to sow four pounds of seed per acre two years ago and now it covers chuins of the hill-tops. The crown lands ranger nailed a faw days ago and "be was surprised to see how it was spreading. He s said he was sure that in a year or so it \tauld cover the whole place. It grows well on the hills. The hotter and drier: the soil 1 the better it seems, to thrive. It also spreada'thfougb the ti-tree, and when one burns the &crab the grass 1 springs up thick, and ti-tree disappears altogether.,, 'lhere ia one patch of grass .now where a little while ago was dense fern and ti-tree. I did not know there was any Pas. palum seed* in the scrub, and the grass came up like magic and covers all the ground. Paspalum looks fresh and green when all other grasses are dry. It grows very fast and will I believe clear out ti-tree quicker than anything else., lafntold by settlers that even on what is considered poor light land it will carry one bullock to the two acres." The seed sown by this correspondent was surface sown aftbr a burn on scrub land. The country is steep *and broken and many thousands of acres of the same claBS of land are obtainable. * * * * * * One of the drawbacks of making pasture iu the North of Auckland is the fact that most of the grasses sown cannot stand the hot summer weather. One of the characteristics of Paspalum is that it thrives well tinder such conditions, and if 'it takes as described, when surface sown on nill country, after a burn, it is going to revolutionise hundreds of thousands of acres in the northern Penmsi|lß. A settler with small capital, can soon have a good stock farm by the simple process of felling light scrub and surface sowing. The cost of cutting the scrub burning off, sowing seed, etc., nead not be, more than from 20s to 25s per acre, and if the grass iis grown in. belts there, seems every prospect of, it spreading quickly with the aid of an occasional burn. ' * * * ' * '■ J . \ Mr John Reid recently forwarded to the Chamber of Agriculture, in Brisbane, the result of a series, of tests made by Mr W. T. Harris' of Toowoomha, on the feeding of dairy stock on paspalum and conch grasses. This farmer, who was milking twelve cows on the 7th,- Bth, 9th and 10th November, placed his herd in/a padr dock of paspalum grass, and fop the fjur daja ne.received 1201b of cream, testing to 40 per cent, of butter fat. On the evening of the lOttj November, he shifted his cows from this paddock nto a couch grass paddock, and his test came down to 34 per cent., nr an average of 321b create to each separating. On the 17th November he again put his cows in the paspalum paddock, with the following result:—An average of 151b of cream to. qacb separating, testing 40 tfer . cent, on precisely the same quantity of milk. If these figures be worked out at the present price in Australia of cream, per lb for 40 per cent test, it will be seen that while'in the Jiasfpaluin paddocks the cows reaised Is 4d each separating, or 23 per day -more than wheu x in the couch paddock. v * * * * * , > Paspalum dilitatum is now the principal dairying grass of the tioas tal districts of Australia. It is one of the principal fattening grasses of Argentine, being indigenous to ,tliat country. In the United States of America it is largely used and found excellent for pasture, and hay.