VALUE OF PLOUGHING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 June 1938, Page 9

VALUE OF PLOUGHING

* ; TO BRING ABOUT FERTILITY. Professor R. G. Stapledon, leading authority in grassland improvement, was the principal speaker at the first national grassland conference, held at Aberdeen. Professor Stapledon said he would like to see the plough at work on all grassland from Land's end to John O’Groats, for that, he was convinced, would alone save the country’s farming and provide an active, robust and plentiful rural population. To create fertility there was nothing to match ploughing up an old sod, liming and slagging the upturned soil, and sowing it down again, repeating the process at regular intervals. There was much to be said for the four-year ley, ploughed down when full of urine and droppings. Three or four four-year leys in succession, with no interim cropping but with heavy stocking, worked marvels in building up fertility. Turning to costs, Professor Stapledon said 100 acres of difficult land had been tractor-ploughed for farmers at 25s an acre. This covered ploughing costs, depreciation, lorrying the tractor up to 30 or 40 miles, and advisory supervision, and the result was "just about square.”