Pasture Notes.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 3, 1 April 1920, Page 13

Pasture Notes.

(BY E. BRUCE LEVY.)

ASSISTANT BIOLOGIST, WERAROA STATE FARM. GRASS2NG OF FERN LANDS. Of the 33,300,000 acres in New Zealand available for agricultural and pastoral pursuits, 2,700,000 acres consists of fern a.nd scrub. Certain of this area has been in fern for hundreds of years, but a large proportion represents country that has reverted to this vegetation after initial attempts at utilisation of the gxound have failed. There are consequently two types of fern. lands : — (1) Natural fern lands. (2) Induced fern lands. The natural fern lands are those which have been in this vegetation for hundreds of years and are generally associated with Tutu. The induced fern lands are of recent origin and comprise mainly those areas which previously carried forest — -the reversion to fern following on as a result of "cheap" and inappropriate seeding of the burn, and subsequent poor farm management. Fern will grow on. almost every cla-ss of land — from the poorest to the very best — from extremely dry to fairly wei — the height varying from 1 foot to 8 feet according to the class of land. The fern coverurg' thus serves as a very good index of the quality of the land and where fern is growing five or more feet of first class land is indicated and conversely the shorter and more stunted the fern growth the less fertile the soil. The plant is generally looked upon as an indication of an acid soil, but it does i exceedingly well on almost pure limestone fonnation. The natural fern lands comprise some of the best lands in New Zealand, and these lands are really the easiest of lands to bring into profitable use from the natural vegetation. There are three main ways of dealing with natural fern lands : — (1) Buming and surface sowing of seed. 2) Buming and ploughing, etc. (3) Crushing out by stock without buming or sowing. The areas are flred in the autumn, and great care must be exercised to see that the fire does. not carry over beyond the .area intended to be burnt. Late autumn (February-March) is advisable and really the later the better for the following reasons : — (1) Rain is likely to fall soon after ing(2) Fem will not reappear until the following October so that the grass can become wTell established before stocking. As soon as the area is burnt a-nd while the ashes are yet warm the seed should be sown. On land that can be ploughed surface sowing of seed. should not be done — the area should be ploughed after the burn and a seed bed prepared. It is advisable on such ploughable areas to adopt temporary pastures for the breaking in process until such timo as the fern is killed out when a permanent pasture can be secured without fear of the fern again getting possession. The crushing out oi the fern by stock without buming, etc., is only possible where a run-off on to grass is provided, but this method is not recommended. PLOUGHABLE FERN LANDS. Burn as early in autumn as possible and get plough in straight away, or if the land is of such a nature that it soon gets hard, burn in late autumn and work up during winter and early spring. Reduce to a good seed b.ed and sow the following temporary pasture mixture (spring or autumn) according to season when ploughed : — 251b Italian Ryegrass 61b Red Clover 311b per acre. Stock when the fern is re-appearing and before it uncurls. If the seed is autumn sown one or two feedings off will be possible before October, but there must be a good growth left for feeding during October. This is essentiafly the secret of bringing in all classes of fern country and in each case the endeavour is to secure sufficient feed — October-Febru-ary — so that stock may be lcept on those

areas in sufficient numbers to eat or break off the voung fronds as they appear through the ground, and if sufficient" grass is not present, then it will not be possible to carry sufficient stock to cope with all the fern without tke stock losing condition, Cattle beasts are better adapted for this work than sheep. After the second temporary pasture the land should be ready for establishment of a permanent one, and the following mixture is recommended on good fern land — flat to undulating : — ■ 151b Cocksfoot 151b Perennial Rye 41h Crested Dogstail 31b Timothy 41b Red Clover 21b Wbite Clover 431b per acre. SOW IN AUTUMN, On land that is too steep to plough a grass covering can only be obtained by surface sowing, seed immediately after burn (as late in autumn as possible). According to type of country the constituents and quantity of each constituent will vary. On sloping country (too steep to plough), the following mixture is recommended : — 101b Cocksfoot 81b Perennial Pye 61b Crested Dogstail 41b Poa Pratensis 41b Danthonia. Pilosa 21b Red Clover 21b Wbite Clover 21b Lotus Hispidus. 381b s per acre. Sorne Italian Rye should be included in an early autumn (February) burn so as to coj.e with the immediately re-appearing fern — otherwi.se this constituent is best omitted from these permanent sowings. On land of a- steeper nature and of poorer quality the following mixture is recommended : — 61b Cocksfoot 61b Crested Dogstail 41b Poa Pratensis 21b Chewings Fescue 21b Danthonia. Pilosa 6ib Perennial Ryegrass 21b Wbite Clorer 21b Lotus Hispidus. 301b per acre. Again Italian Rye should be included for early autumn burns.