SOWING DOWN FOUL LAND.

Waikato Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1538, 13 May 1882, Page 3

SOWING DOWN FOUL LAND.

My father was a successful farmer, and I heard him repeatedly say that his experience was against spending money in cleaning land intended for permanent pasture. He said that when the " open field" here was first enclosed the land which Avas intended for pasture was simply left to nature, and that it all went down into turf in a very moderate time. His experience was that, however clean a field was made by fallowing, and whatever grass was sown upon it, there came a time about the fourth oofi f fifth year after the Held was seeded, when the grasses with underground steins, which goby the general name of "twitch," would run over the whole field, and would retain possession until the better grasses were able to dispossess them. He said a good turf could only be secured in one way, and that was by manuring the land either directly nor by feeding animals, upon it with either corn or cake. In his own practice he did both. I took a small farm in very bad condition. About an acre of foul stubble was cut off from an arable field, and had to be added to a'pasture in consequence of the railway going through it. , Instead of spending money on labour and seed I dressed this acre with 4cwt of Peruvian guano, which at that time contained 14 {jer cent of ammonia. In four or five years the couch was replaced , by while clover and finer grasses, and at this time no one can tell, that the laud is not an old turf field., About .the year, IS7O my sisters hael J a small field of 'arable land thrown on their hands. It was full of couch, thistles, mare's tail, and the lesser convolvulus. They had no ploughs or horses, and, to hire for fallowing would be troublesome and expensive. '• I said, '• Manure the land and pull up the thistles. LeaVe the rest to Nature." For three years the . land was dressed with about 2 cwt of mineral phosphate and 1| cwt of nitrate of soda per acre, put on, in the spring, and grazed by cow| fed on cake. Tiie l'esult was marvellous. In four years the laud grazed nearly a cow per acre from May to October, and at the end of six years a flower show was held in the field. The judges, one of whom was a well-known seedsman, said that there was one person who ought to have had the prize omitted, an'd' that' was the person who seeded his fiekl^down. I was present, 'and replied^ it was^^atu^s jpw,n seeding. The" hand of man" had sown nothing, .and,' further, that ijf anyone] would find a field in thiff neighbftij&poil li would undertake to produce a like result, however full of, weeds the. fielfldfigliftl&fjft' I could graze and manure, ,#> asjLpho^se, for aevpn ye'^rs. , Can any of you do the same fallowing" the r land and "sowing it with the best possible I'seeds,1 'seeds, '"unless you[ also apply manure ? -"In 1876 rcame into? the pols&sibivW very, poor farrif/ near a_ quaruy .whifeh- is, worked ,for road x , stone. ,*» Most o£ the, farm was completely worn-jb'ut' arab'l^ fields; 1 and as'an^&perimeht^Tlaid 'dotfh' three fields adjoining on ! three different' -methods.- One was - cleaned and sown' t< i with a; j'corni'i crop ''and qeejjgdtwith mixed jdoyer' and jrye-grasg/ qijewas cleaned andrsow^witu ]j£B| ,p£i;- p i maneirfc grasaf seeds', ana "one was ,'Jeft ' to ! nature._ wV AII ba^e jamce .been "hmrf{u%& and graced' by 'skee^and'iyoung cattle fed with tiake and com. 1 and haye greatly imP|QKe4.Vb^th^ best QgtliCsthreer&Ctlra q^\fhi%^;^ede4t%|»ture./?(|pnejL' s pysau(ds,^fr ~Tsul4l frea%,tlsef ploughed

mpT. would add a dressing ot artificials gKcti spring. Even if nitrate of soda is used it is not lost, as on ploughed land, but it is immediately taken up by the herbage. My recipe would be — sow a few pounds of white and Alsike clover, 3 cwt of superphosphate, and 2 ewt of nitrate of soda per acre early in spring, and graze with sheep and young cattle fed with cake and corn, G. Ellis, Leicester, in Agricultural Gazette.