IMPROVING PASTURE LANDS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3119, 19 February 1909, Page 7

IMPROVING PASTURE LANDS.

On this subject an official report "by Mr J. M. Hattrick, F.H.A.S., states that the development of the practice of top-dressing pasture lands in this country has been quite a feature during the last five years, particularly in the Auckland province, where, more than anywhere else, the soil responds to manures, and instances are cited of the phenomenal increases which have been brought about in the stock-carrying capacity of land, and in the quantities of milk produced, simply by judicious manuring. It is noted, however, that this is not the case in other districts, particularly Taranaki, where the soils are in general rich, most of the province having been originally covered with heavy bush, and ho fertile that when the bush was cleared, and "a good burn" secured, no difficulty was experienced in establishing splendid pastures on the cleared lands. The climate of Taranaki is described as being specially favourable to the growth of grass, and at first sight any artificial aid would appear superfluous, so luxuriant is the herbage in favourable seasons. The point to be determined, however, was as to whether abundant grass was necessarily nutritious. The object of the experiment with wiiich Mr Hai trick's report deals was to determine in how far, if at all the | milk yield was affected by judicious ' top- That the quality of thd food has a most powerful influence upon the milk yield of dairy cattlo nad already been proved by , reli ible experiments in the hard-feed-ing >H milcn cow?, also that judiciuis manuring had a great effect upon the quality of the feed in pastures was accepted by most practical men, but so fir there was no experimental proof of the fact. The experiment was carried out on Mr Battriek's behalf by Mr H. G. Sergei, of Eltham, Tarana'-u, and as the test was to determine how far the milk yield was affected by the manurial treatment of the pasture it was necessary to compare the yields of milk from g equal areas of land, manured and I unmanured. For this purpose a block 0 of fairly uniform land of first-class I quality was selected in a conveni- I ently situated paddock, and two 1 plots, each four acres in area, ca'r-3- § fully measured off side by side. In 1 J July, 1907, there was applied to No. 1 pi t the following mixture:—lewt of 30 per cent, pjtash manure, and 3cwt of basic slag (Thomas phosphate) per rce. No special precautions were taken to prevent stock fro.n grazi';gr over both plots throughout the eatly spring, and it was only in Octaber Bth that the plots w fenced off and stock ex-

A vreSli later, (en October 15th) foirco.vs were selected from the herd, "and of these two were placed on each plot. The cows were Known to b?, when treated alike, all about equal in milk-yielding power. Commencing on .October 15th, the milk of each cow was carefully weighed morning and evening for six weeks. At the end of that period the cows were interchanged, so that thoie which had been on the unmanured IILu Were .then recorded in the same manured 1 ind, and vice versa. The yields w c r u then recorded in the same manner as before for a furtfiar period of six weeks. By inlerjnariijing the cows in this manner, it was hop. j d to eliminate any difference wnich might ba due to tne individuality of one or other of the two lots of cows. A summary of the tables of the weekly returns shows a total gain for the twelve weeks of 258§1b of milk in favour of the manured plot over the unmanured, in connection with which Mr Sergei notes that "the area assumed as sufficient to 1 gr e ze two cows, namely, 4 -teres,. I had bten very much over es;. lated, 1 and, consequently, the grass i.i both j plots gained on the cows very ! rapiuly, so much so that the man- j ured portion had the appearance of a ! hay field. The striking superiority J of the manured plot is theretore all | the moie significant, in view of the ! fact that both lots of cows had ap- J parently throughout a superabund- j ance of feed," to which Mr Hattrick adds that "bearing this fact in mind, it is seen from the complete ; table of results that the net total increase was 258J1b of milk from four acres of land in 12 weeks, equivalent to 64Jlb of milk per j acre in 12 weeks, and assuming that J the ratio manured to unmanured land j would have remained the same t throughout a milking season of 38 J weeks, as it was during the 12 weeks < recorded the cifference would be in j round numbers 2041b increased yipld , of millk per acre, i.e., practically 20i gallons. This at the price actually paid by the factory, to which ] the milk was cent, viz., 4 l-10d per gallon (which is celculated from ( the average butter-fat contents of . the milk from the whole herd on Mr Sergei's farm, and the price paid by | the factory for same), represents an I increased monetary return of 7s per acre in the first season. The manures cost on the farm 24s per acre, and as there is no doubt that the heavy dressing given will remain effective lor four or perhaps five years, it is permissable to spread the cost over four years at any rate, in which case we have already a profit of Is per acre in the first year, while even this by no means represents the actual gain, or the increase which would be obtained in ordinary practice, because in all the 'manuring for mutton' experiments which have been carried out during the past ten years it has been usual to stock each plot to its full carrying capacity. This was not done in the present trial, and Mr Sergei estimated that the manured plot would easily have carried one cow more than" the unmanured, and it is intended in future work to adopt the plan o± putting in each plot as many cows as it will carry."