A manual of the grasses and forage-plants useful to New Zealand. Part 1

Mackay, Thomas, George Didsbury, Government Printer, Wellington, N.Z., 1887

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The original publication details are as follows:

Title: A manual of the grasses and forage-plants useful to New Zealand. Part 1

Author: Mackay, Thomas

Published: George Didsbury, Government Printer, Wellington, N.Z., 1887

O'roton i'anbs 0 continent

A MANUAL OF THE GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

PART I

BY THOMAS MAC KAY.

published bg (tommanir.

WELLINGTON:

BY authority : oeobgb didsbcby, government printer.

1 88 7.

INTRODUCTION.

This object of this Manual is to place before the practical farmer, in a manner as simple and as free from technical terms as possible, a copious digest of the fullest information available regarding the various grasses and forage-plants best suited for New Zealand.

It is proposed to divide the work into three Parts.

Part I. will treat of those species which have been or should be introduced from Britain and other countries ; Part 11., of those kinds that are indigenous to New Zealand ; and Part 111. will give the particulars of any special experiments of a practical nature which have been made concerning the cultivation as well as respective values of both imported and native kinds for pasture or fodder.

As each Part will be distinct in itself, it will in the first place be published separately as soon as it is got ready for the printer.

Eli HAT A

In Figure XVIII., instead of Aliske read A

In Figure XXIX., instead of Heliantus Tub. i HeUanthus Ttiberosus

In page G9, first line, instead of rapus read napus.

In page 83, tenth line, instead of 1876 tee

PREFACE.

It has been long apparent to many practical and progressive agriculturists in New Zealand that a good deal of ignorance generally prevails regarding the proper selection and cultivation of the natural and artificial grasses best suited for permanent pasture, as well as of other forage-plants, on which cattle and sheep—notably two of the principal productions of the colony—can be reared and fattened to the best advantage ; and, consequently, there is a much-felt want for a manual on the subject that can be “ understanded of the people.” To supply, therefore, in such a shape the needful information the writer was commissioned in 1884 by the Hon. W. Eolleston, then Minister of Lands, and which was subsequently confirmed by the Hon. J. Ballance, the present Minister of the Department, to undertake the present work.

Its prosecution, however, has been subject to many interruptions from more pressing duties coming in the way, as well as delays occasioned by the difficulty at times of procuring the works of the most recent authorities for necessary information on, and collation of, subjects cognate to its purpose.

A work of the kind, no matter what degree of practical knowledge its author may possess of the subject in hand, must necessarily, from its varied character, be composed of many compilations, and consequently considerable care had to be exercised in the selection, adaptation, and assimilation of the several materials most applicable to the object in view, as well as to render them into less scientific or technical language than is generally employed in treating such subjects, so as to adapt them to the comprehension of the majority of the readers for whom the present work is more particularly intended.

vi

PBEFACE.

The illustrations of the different kinds of grasses and forage-plants, drawn as they have been with great care and accuracy by Mr. A. Koch, of Wellington, will serve to facilitate the identification and study of the specimens they represent, as well as to distinguish several of the grasses from others not dissimilar in appearance, but different as regards their worth as food for sheep or cattle.

In conclusion, .the writer has to acknowledge that he has drawn largely on the various and valuable information contained in the undermentioned works and publications, which he has not hesitated to make free use of, by transferring to these pages, with more or less modification, many particulars which appeared suitable for the purpose, and which were expressed in more apt and comprehensive language than he could have pretended to use. They are as follow : —

Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis. By George Sinclair, B.L.S., F.H.S. „ m

Grasses and Forage-plants. By Charles L. Flint (Boston U.S.A.). „ ,

Pasture Grasses and Eorage-plants. By Samuel T. Preston (London, 1887).

Chambers’s Encyclopsedia.

Journals of the Eoyal Agricultural Society of England.

journals 01 me _l\uwu Journals of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.

The New Zealand Farmer (Auckland).

New Zealand Country Journal (Christchurch).

Newspapers : Field , Australasian , Auckland Weekly News, New Zealand Mail, Canterbury Times, Canterbury Press, Otago Witness.

THOMAS MACKAY.

Wellington, September, 1887.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PART I.

Page

CHAPTER I.

The Foreign Grasses and Forage-plants which have been, or should be, cultivated in New Zealand 1

CHAPTER II.

Natural Grasses 4

CHAPTER III.

Artificial Grasses 39

CHAPTER IV.

Forage-plants of Special Value 57

CHAPTER V.

Comparative Nutritive Value of the Grasses 93

CHAPTER VI.

The Climate and Seasons and their Influence on the Grasses 96

CHAPTER VII.

Selection, Mixture, and Sowing of Grass-seeds for Permanent Pasture 93

CHAPTER VIII.

General Treatment of Grass-lands 115

CHAPTER IX.

The Grass-seed Industry 122

CHAPTER X.

Parasites and Pests of the Grasses 126

CHAPTER XI.

The Construction of Silos 137

APPENDIX.

On the Turnip Crop in Canterbury 151 (By W. E. Ivey, M.R.A.C., F.I.C., F.C.S., Director, and G. Gray, F.C.S., Lecturer on Chemistry, School of Agriculture, Lincoln).

Index of Botanical Names 161

General Index 162.

A MANUAL OF THE GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO

PART I.

CHAPTER I

THE FOREIGN GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS WHICH HAVE BEEN, OR SHOULD BE, CULTIVATED IN NEW ZEALAND.

Ix the cultivation of imported grasses in this colony, it has hitherto been almost the universal practice to either surface-sow, or lay down, pasture-land with only one or two kinds, such as cocksfoot and perennial rye-grass ; with, perhaps, in some instances where the land has been ploughed, a mixture of timothy and white clover, and, but rarely, some cow-grass. The effect of this is that, while in the spring and beginning of summer there is an abundance of feed, after midsummer the grasses in such pastures present a very dried-up appearance, particularly the rye-grass, which has run up into brown and wiry seed-stalks that stock will not touch ; and even after the late autumnal rains have freshened up the parched pastures, there is not much nutritive matter in the second growth, which must not, besides, be fed too close, or there would not be much left for winter feed. Now, on the other hand, if permanent pasture-land were brought by the plough and harrow to a proper tilth, and sown with a selection of grasses and clovers of various habits of growth that would be in equilibrium with each other, and so associated as to severally attain their times of blossoming at different periods.

1—Ft. I.

2

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS

and thus afford a succession of succulent herbage from early spring to the end of autumn, it would-having regard to being allowed due rest at tin.es by the shifting of the stock to other paddocks similarly cultivated, and the absence also of oversto, more stock relatively, and fatten them more quickly than the meagre pastures first described. To indicate how tins can be effected will be the main object of this Part of the Manual.

The imported grasses and forage-plants which have been acclimatized in this colony have been introduced principally from EnK land There are about two hundred known kinds of such grasses and plants grown in Britain, of which, however, there are comparatively a small number worth cultivating for their feeding properties. These only, together with those from other countries, will be dealt with; and, although they may be considered, at first sight, to be but few, it will be found that none of any real practical value, in an agricultural sense, have been omitted. _ __ ._, __., „, wl

In addition, however, to describing the suitable natural an artificial grasses for permanent pasture, there are, besides, other valuable forage-plants—of which descriptions will be given—that may be the means of inducing more extended cultivation thereoi than exists at present.

The following is tlie order in which both grasses and plants will he grouped and described :

I Natural, or the true grasses, such as cocksfoot, the iescues, and timothy.

II. Artificial, or the leguminous, such as the clovers, lucerne, and sainfoin.

HI Forage-plants of special value, sucli as Indian-com, sunflower, and also roots of various kinds.

1. NATURAL GRASSES

These may he divided into two classes, coarse and fine.

Class 1. Coarse Grasses

Cocksfoot, Dactylis glomerata.

Meadow Eescue, Festuca pratensis.

Tali Eescue, Festuca elatior.

Meadow Eoxtail, Alopecurus pratensis.

Timothy or cat's-tail, Phleum pratense.

Prairie-grass, Bromus uniolides.

LND.

3

Perennial rye-grass, Lolium perenne.

o ' / Italian . Lolium italicum.

■ ... Fine Gra

ail. Cunosurus cristatus.

:scue, Festuca duriuscula.

■iita.

Rough-stalked meadow-grass, Poa trivialis.

Tall oat-grass, Arrhenatherum avenaceurn.

ss, Avena flavescens.

Fiorin, Agrostis stolonifera.

11. ARTIFICIAL GRASSES

V. hite clover, Trifolium repens.

Alsike clover, Trifolium hybridum.

red clover or cow-grass, Trifolium pratense per

Red or broad clover, Trifolium urn

t alfalfa, Medicago sativa.

Sainfoin, Onobrychis sativa.

"\ etch or tares, Vicia.

arrow, . I illefolium.

[II. FORAGE-PLANTS OF SPECIAL VALUE.

Indian-corn or maize, Zea mays.

Common millet, Panicum miliaceum.

Chinese sugarcane or sorgho, Sorghum nigrum or Sorghum ii hi.

Sunflower, Helianthus animus

Rape, Brassica napus.

Thousand-headed kale.

Cabbage, Brassica oleracea,

Turnip, Brassica rapa.

Mustard, Sinapis.

Mangold-wurzel

Carrot, Daucus carota.

Parsnip, Pastinaca sativa.

Field pea, Pisum arvense.

Bean, Fabu.

CHAPTER 11.

NATURAL GRASSES.

Class 1. Coarse G;

:o: 11 {Dactylis glomerata).

Fig. l.

is one of the most valuable and widely known of all the pastn 3. It is common to a large portion of Europe, to the North of Africa, and to Asia, as well as America. It was introduced in ITfil by the Society of Arts into England from Virginia, where it had been cultivated some years prely. Soon after its introduction it became an object of >\ agricultural interest among cattle-graziers, having been found to be exceedingly palatable to stock of all kinds. Its rapidity of growth, the luxuriance of its aftermath, and its power of enduring the cropping of cattle, commend it highly to r's rare, especially as a pasture-grass.

larlier than timothy, and about the time of red clover, it makes an admirable mixture with the latter plant, to cul in the blossom and cure for hay. As a pasture-grass it I be fed close, both to prevent its forming thick tufts and to prevent running to seed; For the herbage of this grass, when suffered to grow rank or old, from want of sufficient stock to eat it close, or of being cut for hay, contains nearly one-half less lunent than that which is of recent growth. The produce does not increase if left standing after the time of (lowering, but rather decreases in the weight of root-leaves ; and, by reason of the rapid growth of the aftermath which succeeds an cutting, the loss sustained in nutriment by letting a hay crop of the grass stand for seed will he found considerable. This c'-cuiie-tance shows the necessity of keeping this grass closely eaten down with sheep or cattle, to reap the full benefit of its superior merits as a pasture-grass. Oxen, horses, and sheen cat

G

GRASSES AND FOBAGE-PLANTS

it readilv; cattle, particularly, have been observed to cat the culm or' stalk and flowering beads till the time the seed is perfected. This grass is less exhausting to the oil tie-.. or timothy. It will endure considerable shad/. Its rool fibrous, and penetrate to a considerable depth in the ground where the subsoil is porous : under such circ the plant flourishes, is productive in an extraordinary degree, withstands severe drought, and remains permanent.

The Culture of Cocksfoot for Seed

A- a rule, cocksfoot, as well as ail other grasses which are specially cultivated for the production of seed, should not be allowed'to mature a seed-crop until the plants are at least from two to three years old, and they should not in the' meantime be even mown for hay, hut eaten down by sheep and young c Subsequently they should only be shut up for a crop i second' year, which could be easily managed by cither setting or subdividing paddocks in due rotation for the The reason for this is obvious: All permanent grasses rei time to send their roots deep enough into the soil before they can attain a sufficiently vigorous growth, so as to produce a quality of seed ; but, unfortunately, it is too often the practice of growers of grass-seed —particularly cocksfoot —in this colony to "kill the goose for the golden egg," by even taking a seed-crop off one-year-old plants, and yearly afterwards, ■esult being that a large percentage of non-germinating and inferior seeds are produced from immature plants, and the p them akened and rendered almost valueless as food for stock by such a drain on their vitality.

T/ie Harvesting of Cocksfoot Sec/' in N> w Zealand.

This industry is carried on principally in the bush clearings of the Maoris, and on the farms of settlers on the west coast of Taranaki and Wellington, and on similar lands in .Hanks Peninsula, Canterbury, in which district it is extensively pursued. When sufficiently ripe the seed-stems are cut from one to two feel long with either a reaping-hook or scythe, and laid on the grass the same as a grain-crop before reaping-machines were invented; from whence it is gathered, tied, and stooked by a man who follows the cutter. When quite dry and mature the bundles arc generally tin out with a Hail, although the Maoris in Taranaki Ere-

USEFUL TO NEW ZE U

7

quently perform thai operation in a more primitive manner by treading out the seed with horses, which they ride in a circle over the bundles on a suitable piece of ground for gathering up the I sacking it. Where cocksfoot, however, is cultivated on a large scale for seed, a stripper, similar to the grain-stripper of Smith Australia, is now generally used, by which time and labour are largely saved. The see:!, which is light, averages about 121b. per bushel. After it is threshed or stripped, as the case may be. the great desideratum is to clean it properly from other seeds, particularly Yorkshire fog, or soft meadow-grass [Holcus lanatus) , which is very difficult to separate from it. Tii d kinds of machines for this purpose. Some arc suited for the small producers, being adaptations of the imou portable winnowing-machine ; and others, particularly those manufactured by Drummond, of Cumnock, Ayrshire, Scotland, which are of various sizes and most effective, are suited for the merchants who purchase from the producers, and are principally to be seen in use in the wholesale seed-stores in Canterbury and Ol

Commercial Importance of the Industry.

So far a* it can be ascertained the average produce of seed per afro is about 35011)., I'or which the grower gets, if a good sample, 4d. per pound. This leaves about 2d. net after paying all expenses —nearly 63 an acre. To do this the paddocks set apart for seed must be shut up for about five months, from October to February inclusive, but after the seed-stems are cut or stripped the land can be grazed with occasional rest during the other seven months. In Banks Peninsula alone the proceeds from this industry have averaged for some years fc 10,000 yearly; in 1886 they reached 660,000; and, though it is difficult to get an estimate for other parts of the colour, vet it may be set down at 620,000, of which Taranaki will have the largest -hare. A very large quantity of the seed is exported to England and Australia.

1

Cocksfoot. DACTYLIS GLOMERATA.

I I- TO Ni:\V ZEALAND.

9

iw Fescue {Festuca pratensis .

Fig. 2.

Tl, :ues is common in moist meadows and pastures of rich soil in Britain, throughout Europe, in Northern Asia, and in some parts of North America, and is, perhaps, not excelled by any pasture or meadow grass whatever. It is suitable both for alternate husbandry and permanent pasture. It forms a very considerable portion of the turf of old pasture., and ls ni ' lively propagated and diffused by the fact that it ripens its seed before most other grasses are cut, and sheds them, to spring up and covet' the ground. Its long and slender leaves nuch relished by cattle. It stands drought well. According to Sinclair it is of greater value at the time of flowering than when the seed is ripe. It is said to lose a little over 50 of its weight in drying for hay. In point of early produce in the spring this grass stands next to the meadow foxs , and is superior in this respect to the cocksfoot. It is eaten by horses, oxen, and sheep : its merits will be more i ! aring it with the cocksfoot and ixtail. As it is often three weeks later in flowering than the foxtail grass, the latter-math produce must be left out for the truth of comparison as regards its value for bay; anfl , ; er in growth after being cropped than cocksfoot, it is likewise necessary to omit the latter-math in a ■ produce.

Th :ue constitutes a very considerable portion of the herbage of all rich natural pa ■■{ irrigated meadows ; '* ma] hay, and, though a large plant, the leaves or herbage are succulent and tender, and apparently much liked by cattle, as they never form rank tufts, which is the case with the It is an essential r permanent pasture, but does not appear to arrive at its iV.il productive powers from on as either the cocksfoot or meadow foxtail grasses.

Fig. 2.

Meadow 1 FESTUCA PRATE

11

(MASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS (JSEFUIi TO NEW ZEALAND.

Tall Fescue {Festuca elatior).

Fig. 3.

This grass, which is closely allied to the meadow fescue, grows from four to five feet high, and chiefly in moist low ground. It is most useful in permanent pastures, being an early as well as a nutritive and productive grass. Its growth is stronger than cocksfoot, and its roots arc deeper. It is suited to dry weather in light soils, and holds the soil in windy localities. It grows too coarse in good land for any stock except cattle. In hill pastures sheep like it, and it keeps green when other grasses are parched.

The Culture of Tall Fescue for Seed.

It has been grown successfully for this purpose in Hawke's Bay, particularly by Mr. J. D. Ormond, on his property near Hastings. The practice is as follows : Choose rich heavy soil, and sow it with 301b. of seed to the acre. When the crop is ripe it should be cut at once, the seed being liable to shed with the first wind. It should be threshed also at once on the ground with a flail on sheets, as half the seed would be lost if carted to be threshed in a granary. The average produce of seed on the best land is twenty-five to thirty bushels, averaging 171b. to the bushel.

During the last two years a thousand bags of it, averaging 801b. each, have been shipped from Napier to London at 9d. per pound f.o.b.

Tall I FEI

Fig. 3.

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND,

13

Meadow Foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis).

Fig. i.

This grass closely resembles timothy; but the spike or head of meadow foxtail is soft, while that of timothy is rough. It flowers earlier than timothy, and thrives on all'soils except the driest sands and gravels. K is a valuable pasture-grass on account of its early and rapid growth, and of its being greatly :d by stock of all kinds. The stems and leaves" are too I light to make it so desirable as a hay crop. It thrives best in a rich, moist, strong soil, and shoots up its flowering stalks so much earlier than timothy that it need not be mistaken for that grass, though at first sight it considerably resemble, it. It is superior to timothy as a permanent pasture-grass, enduring the cropping of sheep and cattle better, and sending up a Ear luxuriant aftermath. It is justly regarded therefore as :' the most valuable pasture-grasses of England, forming there a very considerable portion of the sward, and enduring a great amount of forcing and irrigation. Though a close and permanent sod when fully set, it does not acquire 5 its full perfection and hold of the soil until three or four years after being sown.

tutritive qualities of meadow foxtail are most abundant at the time of flowering. It is said to lose upwards of 70 per cent, of its weight in drying if cut in the blossom.

The seed of meadow foxtail is covered with the soft and woolly husks of the flower, while the larger glume, or scale of the calyx, is furnished with an awn. The seed is very light: there are five pounds of seed in a bushel, and seventy-six thousand seeds in an ounce. An insect attacks the seed while it is forming, and it is also subject to blight; and hence good si somewhat difficult to procure, and is held at a high price.

Fig- *

Meadow I ALOPECURUS PRATENSIS

Uli TO NEW ZEALAND,

L 5

Timothy Grass, or Meabow Cat's-tail (Phleum pratense) .

Pig. 5.

The name of timothy, by which it is more generally known, was derived from Timothy Hanson, an American, who is said to have cultivated it extensively and to have taken the seed from Xew York to Carolina. Its culture was introduced inl land from Virginii ■ Wyncke in 1.

Timothy is i ; d plant, which renews itself by an animal formation of " bulbs," or, perhaps, more correctly speakibers, in which the vitality of the plant is concentrated during the winter. These form in whatever locality the plant iwn, without reference to dryness or moisl are. From these proceed the stalks which support the leaves and head, and from the same source spread out the numerous fibres forming the true roots.

It thrives best in moist, peaty, or loamy soils, of medium ity, and is not suited to sandy or light gravelly lands though on such soils, by great care, it can be made to grow and nee fair crops, some other grasses are better suited to them, and more profitable. It grows very readily and yields very large crops on favourable soils. It is cultivated with ease, and yields a large quantity of seed to the acre, varying from ten to thirty bushels according to qualities of soils.

In Sinclair's " Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis " it is stated, in reference to this grass, as the result of experiments conducted sixty years ago at Woburn Abbey under the auspices of the (hen Duke of Bedford, that the crop when ripe exceeds in nutritive value die crop at the time of flowering. This conclusion is sustained by the more recent investigation of the late Professor "Way, chemist of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, whose elaborate analyses of grasses will be Found in the Journal of that Society, Vol. XIV., 1853. This might be inferred from the size and weight of the mealy seeds when the grass is ripe, as many as thirty bushels of which Inning been known to be produced on a single acre.

As a crop to cut for hay it is probably unsurpassed by any other grass now cultivated. Though somewhat coarse and hard especially if allowed to ripen its seed, yet if cut in the blossom, or directly after, it is greatly relished by all kinds of stock, and especially so by horses, whilst it possesses a large percentage of

L 6

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

nutritive matter in comparison with other agricultural gn It is often sown with clover, but the best practical farmers are beginning to discontinue this custom, on account of the different times of blossoming of the two crops. Timothy being invariably later than clover, the former must often he cut too green, before blossoming, when the loss is great by shrinkage, and when the nutritive matter is considerably less than at a little later period; or the clover must stand too long, whereby there is an equally serious loss of nutritious matter and of palatable qualities.

"Whether in growing timothy for hay or seed, or as a pas-ture-grass, it requires peculiar treatment to preserve it from destruction. From the description already given of the tuberous nature of its root, and the illustration of the plant in Fig. 5, it will be understood that its vitality depends upon the preservation of the tubers in question from injury. Care, therefore, should be taken that, when the plant is mown for hay or a seed-crop, it should not be cut lower than four inches from the ground; neither should it be eaten closer by cattle, horse-, or sheep, nor should swine he ever allowed to graze where it is grown, as either is destructive of the tubers from which depend the roots, and the result would he the death of the plant.

The Culture of Timothy for Seed.

Ill the cultivation of timothy for seed the same treatment should he practised as in the case of cocksfoot (see page 5). The principal locality of this industry in the colony is Southland, and the following particulars, which have been kindly furnished by Mr. Robert Cleave, seedsman, Invercargill, through the Commissioner of Crown Lands, Southland, will he found of interest ;—

1. Timothy for seed should he grown in rich deep soil.

i. When sufficiently ripe it should be cut with reaper-and-hinder.

3*. Manner of threshing it: If the weather is dry, it is better to be threshed out in the stock ; if not, it must be put in stack, and not be threshed until it

nab ueexi xxx , ,, , • 4. Cost of harvesting and threshing, per acre : For cutting, 5s.; for threshing out of stook, 13s.; if stacked and thatched, 19s.—so that the total cost in the former would be 18s., and in the latter £1 4s. per acre.

)rmer wuum uu io»., tmu. m 5. Approximate quantity of seed produced per acre: SJcwt.

6. Price per lb. received by grower: to 3£d. per lb. (equal to £3 per acre, leaving net £2 2s. if threshed out of stook, or £1 16s. if stacked and thatched).

7. Approximate quantity sold in the locality : In 1886 about 60 tons (equal to £1,930, at 3d. per lb.).

8. Approximate quantity exported, and price f.o.b.: Nil.

Fig. 5.

Timothy Gi PHLEUM PRATENBE.

17

' ID FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

Prairie (lu\ss [Bromua uniolides).

Pig. G.

This is a most valuable grass. Tt was introduced into Australia from America in 1856. It fills out, spreads well, g great breadth of leaf, roots deeply and consequently resists a long drought, seeds freely, stands close grazing, forms excellent hay ; and, indeed, has every good quality to recommend it for the most extensive cultivation as a fodder-plant, or as a constituent of mixed pastures. Horses, cattle, and sheep feed readily on it, and its nutritious properties are of the highest. Unlike most pasture-grasses the seed is greatly relished by cattle and sheep ; and, as it is rich in albuminous as well as saccharine matter, it is very fattening. The late Dr. Voelcker, Chemist to the Agricultural College, Cirencester, England, places it at the head of the natural grasses in point of nutritive value, while, as to yield, it may in fair soils be cut six or times a year, giving a heavy aftermath during most sei irithin six weeks. It is eminently adapted for the climates of Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, and no pasture should be laid down or renewed without prairie-grass forming a leading constituent, as, growing continuously, it at all times gives a good bite for stock when other grasses have been injured or checked in their growth by drought or frost. It should not he allowed to mature its seed the first season, but should be mown or eaten down. This induces the individual plants to thicken and tiller out, and, by not exhausting themselves in ripening seed, to get a better hold of the soil by a deeper rootgrowth. Late autumn is the best time for sowing, the land of course being prepared by ploughing a month or so before, and by an occasional harrowing to disturb and destroy the germinating weed-seeds. This will not only render the land clean, but will admit of the beneficial influence of atmosphere and rain by the time the seed-time comes round. On poor soil an occasional top-dressing with superphosphate or some other portable fertilizer will be effective. In New Zealand it is at its best yield from the end of April to the end of August, and therefore very valuable as a winter fodder.

It weighs from 201b. to 301h. per bushel according to outditv

xt yt Cigna uum wiu. iu u. pci uuanci auwiumjj LU quality, 2—Pt. I.

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

18

and the average price is id. per pound. If sown as a crop by itself it requires 501b. to COlb. per acre according to the soil, and, with other grasses or clovers, in suitable proportion to the relative quantity sown of such other plants.

Pig. 6.

PRAIRIE GRASS. BROMUS UNIOLIDES.

GRASSES \V> I ,1, TO NEW ! I UiA] D.

19

Perenniai Rye-grass [Lolium perenne).

Fig. 7.

This has had the reputation in Great Britain, for many years, of being one of the most important and valuable of the cultivated grasses. It should never be grown on a poor soil, and is better adapted to a wet and uncertain climate than to one subject annually to droughts, which often continue many weeks, parching up every green thing. There is, perhaps, no grass the characteristics of which vary so much, from the influences of soil, climate, and culture, as perennial rye-grass. Certain it is that this grass has been cultivated in England since 1677, and in the South of France from time immemorial. It is admitted to Ik- inferior in nutritive value to cocksfoot grass when green.

Sinclair, in discussing the relative qualities of perennial rye-grass with other grasses, writes : " There lias been much difference of opinion respecting the merits and comparative value of rye-grass. It produces an abundance of seed, which is easily collected, and readily vegetates on most kinds of soil under circumstances of different management; it soon arrives at perfection, and produces in its first year of growth a good supply of early herbage, which is much liked by cattle. These merits have, no doubt, upheld it till the present day in practice, and constitute it a favourite grass with many fanners. But the aftermath of rye-grass is xcry inconsiderable, and the plant, being shallow-rooted, impoverishes the soil in a high degree if the seed-stems, which arc invariably left untouched by cattle, are not cut before the seed advances towards perfection. When this is neglected, the field after midsummer exhibits only a brown surface of withered straws.-'' lie further says : " Let the produce and nutritive powers of rye-grass be compared with those of cocksfoot grass, and it will be found inferior in the proportion nearly of 5 to 18, and also inferior to the meadow foxtail in the proportion of 5 to 12, and inferior to the meadow fescue in the proportion of 5 to IT. In these comparisons, from which the above proportions arose, it was necessary to omit the seed-crops for the truth of comparison. Hut as the seed of the meadow foxtail is often defective, and the plants ~i the meadow fescue do not arrive at perfection so soon as those of ryegrass, their superiority, as above, is somewhat lessened with respect to their value as alternate husbandry grasses : for

I. TO NEW ZEALAND.

20

permanent pasture, however, the above proportional values will be true, as rye-grass is but a short-lived plant, seldom continuing more than six years in possession of the soil; but it is continued by its property of ripening an abundance of seed, wdiich is but little molested by birds, and suffered to fall and vegetate among the root-leaves of the permanent-pasture But cocl. grass perfects an abundance of seed, and the plants arrive at a productive state as soon as those of rj superiority, as above, is equally great for permanent pa and the alternative husbandry; which is not so precisely the case with the meadow foxte.il grass and meadow fescue."

The Australasian of the 13th November, 1886, under head of "The Yeoman," in Answers to Correspondents, says: " Bye-grass is by nature an annual. Whatever amount of perennial character it has attained has been developed by a careful system o seed only from, plants that hj: \ several years the longer the better. The practic -■razing the crop, and thereby preventing its seeding, has no doubt been the cause of the grass living longer than Nature originally provided. It is the production of seed that taxes the strength of grasses, and all other plants ; if by any means this is prevented, a tendency to longevity will naturally be evoked and developed. The celebrity of Pacey's perennial rye-grass, and Pollexfen's perennial rye-grass, was gained by these Eamous farmers by careful selection, and the practice of saving only from old pastures. The oldest pastures, even where the grass has been allowed to bear only a partial crop of seed, are those on soils specially suited to the crop. The best wheat soils arc the best for rye-grass. As regards size of seed, it is but natural that the grass in full vigour, as in its first year, should bear the heaviest sample. A heavy sample is always regarded with distrust by intelligent buyers."

Fig. 7.

Perennj -u. Rye-grass. LOLIUM PERENNE.

21

' " STS USEFUL TO LAND.

Italian Rye-grass (Lolium italicum).

Fig. 8.

This is a native of the South of Europe, and was introduced into Britain in 1831 by Mr. Thomson, of Banchory, Aberdeensmrej ssrs. Lawson and Son, seedsmen, Edinburgh. It is teemed as a forage-grass. It differs from perennial in the florets having long slender awns. It turf r, its leaves arc larger and of a lighter green; es an early, quick, and successive growth till late in the i. It has the credit of being equally suited to all the climates of Europe, giving more abundant crops, of a better y, and better relis] imals, than the perennial ryeone of the greatest gluttons of all the grasses, cultivated or wild, and Mill endure any amount of forcing by ir or otherwise, while it is . stand drought remarkably well.

Ihe soils best adapted to Italian rye-grass seem to be moist, fertile, and tenacious, or of a medium consistency; and on it is said to be one of the best grasses known to cut for soiling, affording repeated, luxuriant, and nutritive crops.

Fig. 8.

Italian Rye-grass. LOLIDM ITALICUM.

23

QRiSSES AND FOKAQE-PLANT3 USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

Class 11. Fine Grasses

Crested Dog's-tail {Cynosurus mstatus).

Fig. 9.

This grass forms an important part of almost all good pastures, and is particularly esteemed for sheep pasture and lawns, for the improvement of which it is often sown. Its herbage is fine and-close, and its deep roots secure it against droughts which cause many other grasses to wither; but the herbage is not sufficient in quantity to make it desirable for hay. It forms a close dense turf of grateful nutritive herbage, and is little affected by extremes of weather. From these facts it is evident, a sward of the best quality, particularly under circumstances where sheep are a principal object, cannot be formed without an admixture or proportion of the crested dog's-tail grass.

The stems of this grass are used for the manufacture of plat for Leghorn hats and bonnets, and have the reputation of being equal or superior to Italian straw.

Chested Dog's-tail. CYNOSURUB CRISTATUB.

Fig. 9.

ffi-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW

25

Hard Fescue (Festuca duriuscula).

.

In Sinclair's " Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis " this grass is considered one of the best of the fine or dwarf - growing grasses which arc best adapted for the food of sheep. It is most prevalent on rich light soil: but it is likewise always found in the richest natural pasture-, where the soil is more retentive of moisture, and is never absent from irrigated meadows that have properly formed. It attains to the greatest perfection when combined with the meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis) and b-stalked meadow-grass (Poa trivialis). It springs rather early, and the produce is remarkably fine and succulent. It withstands the effects of severe dry weather in rich natural pastures better than many other grasses. This property, joined to its merits above mentioned, entitle it to a place in the conim of the best pastures, though in a smaller proportion, on account of its inferior productive powers, which are not compensated by any superiority in the nutritive qualities of the grass over those that are more productive, as is the case with the rough-stalked meadow-grass and some other species. The superiority of these natural pastures over those pastures which are formed of one or two grasses only, in respect of a constant or never-failing supply of herbage throughout the . is in one point, among many others, owing to the variety of habits which exist in a numerous assemblage of different s. Some species thrive best in an excess of moist weather; others in a continuance of dry weather : but the majority of grasses which compose the produce of the pastures in question thrive best in a middle state between moisture and dryness. Observation will abundant proofs of the truth of this, by comparing the different states of productiveness in natural pastures, during a season of changeable weather, with those of artificial pastures under the like influence of soil and climate.

Fig. 10.

Hard Fescue. FESTUCA DURIUBCULA.

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND

27

Sheep's Fescue [Festuca ovina).

Pig. 11.

A small grass, the seed-stem of which rarely exceeds Ift. in height. It is common in all the mountainous parts of Europe, and in the Himalayas; it is also a native of North America. It is especially suited for hilly and mountainous pastures, in which it forms a principal part of the food of sheep for many months in the year. Its habit of growth is much tufted.

Sheep's Fescue. FESTUCA OVINA

Fig. 11

29

>ND FOKAGE-PLANTS GSEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND,

Rough-stalked Meadow-grass (Poa trivialis).

Kg. 12.

The superior produce of this Poa over many other species, its highly-nutritive qualities, the season in which it arrives at perfection, and the marked partiality which oxen, horses, and sheep have for it, are merits which distinguish it as one of the most valuable of those grasses which affect rich soils and sheltered situations : but on dry exposed situations it is altogether inconsiderable; it yearly diminishes, and ultimately dies off, not infrequently in the space of four or five years! Its produce is always much greater when combined 'with other grasses than when cultivated by itself : with a proper admixture it will nearly double its produce, though on the same soil, so much it delights in shelter.

Those spots in pastures that arc most closely eaten down consist for the most part of this grass.

It is highly valuable as a permanent-pasture grass on rich and sheltered soils, hut unprofitable for any purpose on dry exposed situations.

Rough-stalked Meadow-grass. POA TRIVIALIS.

Pig. 12.

GBASSES AND FOKAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

31

Tall Oat-ghass (Arrhenatherum avenaceum).

Fig. 13.

This is the Avena elatior of Linnseus. It grows spontaneously on deep sandy soils when once naturalized. It will also <d on tenacious clay soils. It is highly esteemed as a per-manent-pasture grass, mainly for its early, rapid, and late growth ; and, besides, is much recommended for green-feeding and also for hay, from the early supply of fodder which it furnishes. After being mown it shoots up a very thick aftermath, and, on this account, partly, is regarded as* nearly equal in excellence to meadow foxtail.

Fig. 13.

Tall Oat-grass. ARRHENATHERUM AVENACK

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

33

Golden- or Yellow Oat-grass (Avena flavescens).

Fig. 14.

This grass docs not thrive when simply cultivated by itself; it requires to be combined with other grasses to secure its continuance in the soil, and to obtain its produce in perfection. It seems to grow best with the crested dog's-tail and sweetscented vernal, and it is said to be the most useful for fodder of any of the oat-grasses. It affects most a calcareous soil, and that which is dry. It grows naturally, however, in almost every kind of soil, from the limestone rock to the irrigated meadow: it is always present in the richest natural pastures. Its produce is not very great, nor its nutritive qualities considerable. The nutritive matter it affords from its leaves contains proportionally more bitter extractive than what is contained in the nutritive matters of the grasses with which it is more generally combined in natural pastures. This latter circumstance is the "chief claim it has to a place in the composition of the produce of rich pasture-land ; but more particularly, if the land be elevated and without good sheltei-, this grass becomes more valuable, as it thrives better under such circumstances than most other grasses, and sheep eat it as readily as they do most others. The seed is very small and light, but it vegetates freely if sown in the autumn or not too early in the spring.

3—Pt, I

Fig. l«.

Golden or Yellow Oat-grass. AVENA FLAVESCENS

GRASSES AMI FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

35

Sweet-scented Vernal [Anthoxanthum odoratum).

Fig. 15.

This is one of the earliest spring grasses, as well as one of the latest in autumn, and is almost the only grass of English grasses that is fragrant. It possesses a property said to be peculiar to this species, or possessed by only a few others, known ■ zoic acid; and it is said to lie this which not only gives it its own aromatic odour, hut imparts it to other grasses with which it is cured. The green leaves, when bruised, give out tliis perfume to the fingers, and the plant may thus be known. s but little value of itself, its nutritive properties being slight; nor is it much relished by stock of any kind; but as a pasture grass, with a large mixture of other species, it is valuable for it-, early growth. The autumn growth is said to be richer in nutritive qualities than the growth of the spring,

Fig. 1?.

Sweet-scented Vj ANTHOXANTHUM ODOEA

iES \N'l) FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO Ni:\v ZEALAND.

37

Fiorix, Creeping Bent {Agrostis stolonifera).

Fig. IG.

This grass grows best in moist grounds, newly-reclaimed bogs or swamps, or land liable to inundation. It lias a peculiar manner of growth, which has been compared to that of strawberries. It scuds out runners or stolones which strike root at the joints. Sinclair considers that the chief advantage of this grass is its late growth. It remains in a degree inactive till other grasses have attained to perfection, and, when their productive powers become exhausted, those of florin and its varieties begin ; and it will be found on inspection that the latest mouthful of herbage, and sometimes the earliest in those pastures, is principally afforded by this grass. There has been much prejudice existing against the different species of bentgrass in general ; but let the proprietor of a rich, ancient nature divest a part of it of this grass entirely, and the value of the plant will be demonstrated in the comparative loss of late and early herbage. In these pastures late in the autumn it has been observed that the stolones extended to a considerable length, and were left untouched by cattle. In the spring, however, they were generally eaten, and the protection they had afforded to the under-grasses was evident in the superior growth of the herbage where the stolones had most extended : after this, the creeping bent was hardly to be recognized till the other grasses had again exhausted themselves towards the end of the autumn. The plant in this combination takes but little from the soil. Care, however, should be taken that neither florin, nor any other grass with a creeping root —for instance, the smoothstalked meadow-grass [Poa praiensis) —should he grown in any land liable to be broken up lor alternate husbandry.

Tn comparing the produce and nutritive powers of different grasses, to arrive at a knowledge of their relative value, it is absolutely necessary, For the truth of comparison, that the produce of one whole season be taken, and not one crop singly, except in instances where the produce consists of but one crop only. Accordingly, the produce of florin may be compared with that of cocksfoot, meadow fescue, and the meadow foxtail, when it will appear inferior to the two former species and superior to the latter.

The florin taken in England in December affords of nutri-

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

38

live matter an avera cocks per acre : Of 1 I nearly the like inferior to fioriii in the pi

Pig. 10

Fiorin, Creeping Bent AGROSTIS STOLONIFEEA.

CHAPTER 111

ARTIFICIAL GRASSES.

White Clover {Trifolium repens).

Fig. 17.

Tins species of clover is familiar to every agriculturist. The value of it to the fanner is well known. Its chief value is as a pasture-grass, and it is present in every kind of pasture-land. From the circumstance of growing spontaneously in almost every kind of soil, few plants vary so much in size : in very dry and poor sandy soils it is often so small, and grows so flat among the lower leaves of the herbage, that it is not perceptible unless a turf is cut, and carefully examined by dividing it ; hence, on breaking up and manuring such soils, or simply manuring by top-dressing, a spontaneous crop of white clover appears where it was never observed before, and without any supply of seed : this has led to strange conclusions respecting the propagation oi plants. The central root of white clover penetrates to a considerable dentli in the soil, and the plant is thereby better prepared to resist the bad effects of severe dry weather, particularly on sandy soils. The branches that trail on the surface send down fibrous roots from the joints, which penetrate but a little way into the ground : hence it is that the white clover maintains itself in .-oils of opposite natures; for, if the surface be too dry to afford nourishment to the branches, the principal root preserves it; and, when the tenacity and retentiveness of the soil in a W et winter is great enough to rot the tap-root, the fibres of the runners preserve the plant in safety. From this habit of growth, top-dressings and a frequent use of the roller encourage the growth of this plant in an extraordinary degree.

White ( TRIFOLII

Fig. 17.

41

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

Ai.siKi:. or Swedish Clover (Trifolium hybridum).

Fig. 18.

This is so named from being intermediate in its appearance between the white and red clovers. The seeds originally came from Sweden. It is deservedly in repute as one of the best of perennial clovers, and well adapted for permanent pasture.

Fig. 18.

\lsike. or< Swedish Clover TIUFOLIUM HYBRIDUM

3ES AN'D FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW 7.V..W.

43

Perennial Red Clover, ok Cow-grass {Trifolium pratense perenne).

Fig. 19.

This is a most valuable plant in permanent pastures. It withstands the effect of dry weather better than most pasture plants. Its nutritive powers are little inferior to those of red or broad clover. It thrives, as all valuable grasses do, better in combination with other grasses than cultivated by itself, and it is almost the only clover that can be depended on to stand for any length of time on alluvial and clay soils. It differs in many respects from the common red or broad clover, but especially in the leaf, flower, and stem. The leaf of the broad clover is woolly at the edges and back of leaf, yet there is not the velvety appearance which is peculiar to the true cow-grass. The flower, too, of the broad clover is generally light-pink and round, while the cow-grass is darker and more oval in shape. The stem of broad clover is generally succulent and hollow, and inclined to be pithy, while the stem of the cow-grass is solid.

Fig. 19.

NE

45

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

Red ob Broad Clover [Trifolium pratense).

Pig. 20.

This variety is used for alternate husbandry, and other purposes where a permanent pasture is not required. It is unquestionably a valuable fodder-plant, and yields an abundance of excellent feed or hay. Sheep and cattle are always fond of depasturing it.

Red ok Broad Clover [FOLIUM PRATEN

Fig. 20.

E-PLANTS USEFUL To LLAND.

47

Lucerne, Alfalfa (Medicaoo sativa).

Fig. 21.

A species of medick, one of the most valuable of the leguminous plants cultivated for the supply of food to cattle. This particular species was brought from .Media to Greece in the time of Darius, about five hundred years before Christ, and its cultivation also extended among the Romans, and through them to the South of France, where it has ever since continued to be a favourite forage-plant. It is not very largely cultivated in Britain, although in some places very successfully, chiefly in the South of England ; but the climate of Scotland is not too cold for it, and the different results obtained by farmers who have tried it seem to depend chiefly on difference of soil and management. It is largely cultivated in some parts of North South America, in Peru and Chili, and grows wild in the utmost luxuriance i.i the pampas of Buenos Ayres, where it is called alfalfa, which is simply the common lucerne slightlv modified by climate, and may be regarded as a variety. It is grown also in Australia, particularly in Victoria and New b Wales. Its tap-roots penetrate in mellow soils to great : :-, having been found in sandy soils thirteen feet in length ; and in the driest and most sultry weather, when every blade of grass droops for want of moisture, lucerne holds up its stem, fresh and green as in the genial spring.

The cultivation of lucerne is somewhat more difficult than that of clover for the first year, requiring a soil thoroughly mellowed, and prepared by clean and careful tillage. It suffers and languishes in compact clay-soils, and does not flourish in light soils lying over an impermeable subsoil, which prevents the water from running off. It will never succeed well on thin soils. But in a permeable subsoil, consisting of loam, or sand, or gravel, its roots can penetrate to great depths, and imbibe their moisture and nutriment in layers of soil far below the average of other plants. In this respect it differs materially from clover.

For lucerne a suitable subsoil is of the utmost consequence. For the short-lived red clover a suitable surface-soil is more important. A want of care and deep tillage, especially a neglect to break through and loosen up the hard pan wherever it exists, will inevitably lead to failure with lucerne. But when the soil

48

ES AND FORAGE-PLANTS

is suitable it will produce good and very profitable crops for from five to ten or twelve years; and, notwithstanding the large quantity of succulent and nutritious Eorage it produces, its effect is to ameliorate and improve the soil rather than to exhaust it. This apparent anomaly is explained by the fact that all leguminous, broad-leaved plants derive a large proportion of their nutritive materials partly from the atmosphere in the shape of carbon, and partly through the medium of their long roots bringing up nitrogen near the surface from a considerable depth ; and that a vast quantity of roots are left to decay in the soil when it is at last broken up, varying, of course, with the length of time the plant continues in the soil, while the luxuriant foliage serves to shade the soil, and thus to increase its fertility. Much of this rich foliage is scattered and left to decay, as is the case with all similar plants at the time of harvesting; and the growth of the aftermath is also usually very considerable. The fact that it actually increases the fertility of the soil for other plants has often been proved, and may be regarded as fully established. A soil which would bear only a medium crop of wheat at first, produced a greatlyincreased quantity after being laid down to lucerne a few years, till its roots enriched the soil.

Lucerne should not follow immediately after having been grown a few years on the same soil, and then broken up ; but after the land on which it has been grown has been cultivated with some other crop, or laid down to the natural grasses a length of time equal to that (luring which it had previously remained in lucerne, it can safely be sown again with it.

The seed of lucerne, when fresh and good, is yellow, glossy, and hairy. If the seeds arc white it is an indication that they arc not ripe. It they are brown it may he inferred that they have been subjected to too strong a heat to separate them from their husks. In either of these cases it is not safe to purchase or to rely on them. The same might be said of clover, and it is desirable to try them by a simple method, which will be indicated hereafter in treating of the selection of seed. As the seeds of lucerne are larger than clovcr-sccd, and the plant tillers less, it is necessary to sow a larger quantity per acre.

Lucerne is not a winter rodder; it is a summer and autumn fodder. It should be eul as soon as it begins to llowcr. or even earlier. If cut much earlier it is apt to be too watery and less

USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND

49

nutritious, and cures with greater difficulty ; if later, it becomes coarse and hard, with woody fibre, and is less relished by cattle. It may be cut and fed green, and is an exceedingly valuable plant for soiling cattle, or it may be cut and cured and used like clover hay; but in either case it must be cut before blossoming.

In cultivating lucerne in New Zealand it should he sown in September and October, in drills varying from twelve to eighteen inches apart, or broadcast, with from 101b. to 151b. of seed per acre, according to the manner of sowing, whether in drills or broadcast. Where the soil is suitable a mixed cultivation of lucerne and prairie-grass would produce, perhaps, one of the best economic combinations, both in quantity and quality, of cattle-fodder for green-feeding that could be grown. By a study of their respective merits as valuable forage-plants, this proposition will not be difficult to understand. In that investigation it w-ill be observed that they are both deep-rooted and draughting plants, but that lucerne is much the deeper-rooted of the two, and that therein lies the main factor of the success of such a combination. This being so, lucerne would necessarily find its nutriment in a lower and different stratification of soil than the prairie-grass. They would thus not interfere, so to speak, with each other, as they would derive their respective supplies of sustenance from separate sources, although growing side by side. To grow them successfully in this manner, however, the lucerne should have the precedence of the prairie-grass by six or seven months, the lucerne being sown in September or October, and the prairie-grass in the following March or April, according to circumstances. It would by this arrangement send its roots down much in advance of the latter, and they would therefore be free of the detrimental competition with each other for plantfood in the early stages of their growth, which would naturally arise if they were sown contemporaneously. The course, therefore, to pursue is to first sow the lucerne in spring, using 101b. to 121b. of seed to the acre, in drills eighteen inches apart, so as to leave room for a one-horse plough or cultivator to work between the rows of plants and keep them free from weeds ; and in the following autumn the prairie-grass should be sown broadcast between the drills at the rate of 301b. to the acre.

Except in New South Wales very little lucerne seed is harvested in Australia. Most of the seed sold in Australia is

4—Pt. I,

GRASSES AND FOBAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

50

grown in Holland, some is grown in France, and Spain could spare a good quantity. The yield in Holland is said to range from five to eight bushels per acre. The threshing is usually done by flail. It can he done by machine just as clover is sometimes threshed in England, although the flail is still preferred by some growers of the crop.

Fig. 21

Lucerne. Medicago

SSES AND FOEAGE u Tp NEW ZEALAND.

51

Sa ixfo i n- ( Onobrych is sativa).

Fig. 22.

Sainfoin is a native of the Continent of Europe and of the South of England, and is much cultivated as a fodder-plant in dry and particularly in calcareous soils, to which it is admirably adapted. Its cultivation was introduced into England in 1651 ; and before the introduction of turnip-husbandry the sheepfarmers of the chalk districts depended almost entirely on it, and do to such a degree that in many leases there is a stipulation for the tenant's leaving a certain extent of land in sainfoin. It is, however, a very local crop, being scarcely cultivated in any but the most calcareous soils, where nothing else is nearly equal to it, although it has been found to succeed well on any soil sufficiently dry.

There is no more nutritious fodder than sainfoin, whether for sheep, cattle, or horses. Even the dry stems of a crop which has produced seed are readily consumed by cattle if cut into small pieces. In the South of Prance, where it flourishes best, it is considered an indispensable forage-plant, improving the quality and increasing the quantity of milk when fed to milch cow-s, to which it may be given without producing the " hoove " or " hoven," to which they are subjected when allowed to iced freely on green clover and lucerne. Its stalks do not become ligneous if allowed to stand till blossoming, as those of lucerne do. The amount of fodder obtained from it is less than that from clover or lucerne, but its quality, where it can be successfully grown, is better. Its seeds arc said to be more nutritious than oats. They arc eagerly sought by fowls, and are said to cause them to lay. Sainfoin when green and young will not stand a severe winter, but after the second or third year will endure a considerable degree of cold. It will succeed in very dry soils, sands, and gravels, owing to its long descending tap-root, which has been found sixteen feet in length.

Sainfoin will endure in the soil, when once fixed there, for eight or ten years, but it requires from three to four years to attain its perfect growth. In pasture culture the grasses are apt to choke it out by their close and firm turf.

Sainfoin is best grown by being sown with barley after the latter is sown thin and harrowed, in the same manner as clover, and afterwards lightly rolled. From three to five bushels of

■■

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

itity, : but

Fig. 22.

ONOBRYCHIS SATIVA.

GRASSES AND ORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

53

Vetch oe Tare ( Vicia).

Fig. 23.

The kinds ordinarily cultivated are the spring and winter vetches, the names of which owe their distinctiveness to the fact of being more or less hardy, and their time of ripening.

The chief application of the vetch is for soiling purposes, for, although it makes capital hay, there is some little difficulty in getting it into stack, while it is most serviceable to all kinds of stock. Sheep do better upon vetches than upon any other kind of herbage, and the plant is therefore held in high esteem by pedigree-ram breeders. Horses improve upon it more rapidly than upon any other of the artificial grasses. Cows, it is said, yield more butter when fed upon it, while pigs eat it greedily when in its green state, and thrive upon it without farinaceous food.

Spring vetches can be sown in New Zealand from September up to the end of December. The method of preparing the land for the seed is to plough it four to five inches in depth, and then harrow it fine, and sow the seed in drills. On the South Downs in Sussex they sow two bushels and a half of vetches and half a gallon of rape to the acre. Spring vetches produce rather a lighter crop than winter tares. The time for sowing winter vetches in this country is from the beginning of April to the end of May. They will stand very severe weather, and when they once commence to grow in the spring they make rapid progress, and come in very early for use.

Pig. 23,

Vetch or Tare. VICIA.

188 AND FOBAGE-PLAI ~ T0 NEW ZEALAND.

55

Yarrow, or Milfoil {Achillea millefolium).

Fig. 21

The yarrow is highly astringent, and reckoned a grateful food for sheep when mixed with the common pasture-gn but it is more as a condiment that it is to be considered than as affording direct nutritive matter. It is therefore generally sown in mixtures with such seeds as are reckoned best adapted for permanent sheep-pasture, and in soils where it is found naturally to thrive. This plant may with advantage be sown on the poorest and driest pasture, and is capable of withstanding the most excessive drought, but it should not he grown on any land liable to be broken up for alternate husbandry.

Fig. U.

ow. ACHILLEA MILLEFOLIUM

CHAPTER IV.

FORAGE PLANTS OF SPECIAL VALUE.

Indian-corn {Zea mays).

Fig. 25.

Indian-corn, or maize, is the only cultivated grain of American origin ; it was in cultivation before the discovery of America by Europeans, by whom, however, its value was soon recognized, and it has now become an important crop in climates suitable for it in all quarters of the world. Its generic name, Zea, was derived from a Greek work signifying to live, and was applied to this plant on account of the farinaceous or mealy nature of the seeds.

Indian-corn is extensively used as human food, and for feeding and fattening domestic animals, and holds the highest rank among the cereals, whether its nutritive qualities, or the produce and return for the seed sown, or its range of climate, be regarded.

According to some analyses, Indian-corn furnishes in its composition 88'43 per cent, of fat-forming principles, gum, &c; 126 per cent, of flesh-forming principles, 9 per cent, of water, and I'3l per cent, of salts. Its chemical composition shows it to be among the most fattening of the cereals, and this is also the result of experience. For our domestic animals, therefore, and as a means of raising and fattening them, Indian-corn may justly be regarded as a superior fodder-plant.

No part of the plant is necessarily lost or thrown aside as worthless : even the cob is ground, and for some purposes of feeding to stock it is very valuable; while, if it were necessary, the plant would supply us with a large amount and a very good quality of sugar.

The culture of Indian-corn for a cereal crop is simple, and easily understood. It requires a dec]), rich, and mellow soil, thoroughly tilled. After ploughing, the land is carefully marked

58

iES AND F ZEALAND.

off in rows from three to four fc each way, according as the variety is large or small, when four or five kerni ped in a hill, either by hand or machine, and covered to the depth of from one to two inches. After the corn is up it is cultivated with the horse-hoe or plot free from weeds. It is sometimes hilled at the hoeing; at others the ground is left level, which is thought to be the 1»

When it is planted as a fodder crop, or to be cut and fed out green, it should in drills from two and a half to three feet apart, making the drills from six to ten inches wide with the plough, dropping the corn about two inches apart, covering with the hoe. In this mode of culture the cultivator may he used between the rows when the corn is from six to e inches high, and, unless the ground is very weedy, no i after-culture is generally needed. It is desirable to have the drills run north and south, so that the sun and air may supply the crop with the largest amount of nutriment. For . it should be cut at early flowering, and for this use it is one of the most valuable and important plants that can be grown. It is a familiar crop in the North Island of New Zealand, wl . is largely grown by the Maoris as a corn crop; hut it can be cultivated in parts of Nelson and Marlborough, in the Middle [sland, also as a corn crop, but farther south only as a crop for cattle or pigs.

It can be sown up to November, but not after that month, owing to the fact that it must be used before the frosts which occur in April and May.

Fig. 25

iIZE.

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND

59

Common' Millet (Panicum miliaceum).

Fig. 20

This is a native of Turkey, and Las been much cultivated in America. It is one of the l)cst crops for cutting and feeding green for soiling purposes, as its yield is large, its luxuriant leaves juicy and tender, and much relished by milch cows and other stock. The seed is rich in nutritive qualities, hut it is very seldom used for flour, though it is said to exceed all other kinds of meal and flour in nutritive elements. When the plant is cut in the blossom, as it should be, for feeding to cattle, the seed is comparatively useless. If allowed to ripen its seed, the stalk is no more nutritious than oat-straw.

Fig. 26.

Common Millet. PANICUM MILIACEDM

CI

BSES AND FORAGE-rLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND,

Chinese Sugarcane, Sorgo (Sorghum nigrum. Fort/hum saccharutum).

Pig. 27.

This is a plant well known throughout the United States, and it has been experimentally grown in several parts of New Zealand, particularly in the North Island, and in the neighbourhood of Nelson in the Middle Island. It grows with a stem from six to fifteen feet high, according to the soil in which it is planted, erect, smooth ; leaves linear, flexuous, gracefully curving down at the ends, resembling Indian-corn in its early growth, and broom-corn, to which it is nearly allied, at maturity. Flowers in a panicle at the top, at first green, changing through the shades of violet to purple, when more advanced.

This plant has lately been produced and used for forage, and successful experiments have been made with it for the manufacture of molasses or syrup and sugar by Judge Gillies, of Auckland. It is rich in saccharine matter, and a large amount of nutritive fodder can bo obtained from it. It grows best on a dry soil and under a hot sun, and is usually planted the same as Indian-corn, both as to the preparation of ground and the time for planting; generally in hills when it is intended to ripen its seed, and in drills or broadcast at the rate of one to one and a half bushels per acre when it is wanted to be cut up green for soiling purposes, or to cure and feed out in winter as a foragecrop.

"Sorghum, in the Illawarra district (New South Wales), is the principal fodder-crop. It is nearly equalled hy maize. It is the most famed fodder-crop of the dairy farmers. At Illawarra sowing commences in October, and can he continued up to January, and the crop comes in for use late in the autumn, and lasts well through the winter, its immunity from the effects of frost rendering it good after the maize has been destroyed. The seed is sown thick, and the close growth of canes about as thick as a man's fingers and ten feet high produces yields of from twenty to forty tons per acre. Stock may be injured by eating the sorghum while it is young and sour, but after the plant is in bloom it is good for food. The cows and other stock cat it with relish, and it produces a good flow of milk. The crop is cut as required, and it is not stored for the winter, but allowed to stand in the field till wanted. No doubt better results could

GBASSES AND FOBAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

G2

be obtained by cutting the sorghum and stonng it in sdos,but such a course has not yet been attempted, lor fodder from 4 01b. to 501b. of seed per acre is sow broad-east and for seed a bout 201b. an acre is put in with the drill" (Australasian, 2<Jth May, 188G).

Fig. 27.

Chinese Sugar-cane SORGHUM SACCHARATUM

LAND.

63

Sunflower

.

The sunflower is a common garden plant. It has been so long iti cultivation and in so many parts of ti origin is somewhat i i, but itissuppo co and Peru. The industrial importance of the plant is by the rapidity with which it has become a regular crop among two of the Id—Russia Germany—while in England, Pr: I, Holland, Jamaica, and elsewhere it is more or less in cultivation for some or other of its many uses.

The uses to which the plant is put are numerous, but those of the seed are the most important. This, in its whole state, is ai ■ a fattening feed for pigs, sheep, and poultry! Fed i makes them lay better, and t ts it makes irds plumper and improves their plumage. The fixed oil from the seeds jj inferior to olive oil, and is used Cor all the purposes to which that oil is adapted. The yield of oil is 40 per cent., and the oilcake, fed to cattle, is wholesome and fattening, being considered suj to that of linseed.

The fresh leaves make a good fodder, which is eaten with avidity by cattle, and for bees the sunflower is unrivalled, large iies of honey and wax being obtained therefrom. One of the most remarkable properties of the plant is its large power of aDsorb exhaling moisture. The actual extent of this power is differi ntly state;! by authorities, but the lowest estimate gi yen ' halation of the sunflower is 1 .lib. of water within twenty-four hours. Another authority states that it will lose nearly 21b. by perspiration in twelve hours, and that taking all • into account a sunflower perspires seventeen times more than a man. On account of this property it Mended to be planted round swamps as a barrier aalaria, and it has been used for this object with undoubted effe

The cultivation of the sui very simple, and it yields a quick crop. Under favourable conditions the ripe seeds have reaped within ten weeks of sowing. It is no! particular as to soil, but prefers it light, rich, and well drained ; well suited only make the difi ~ dler harvest. It is advisable to sow early so as to secure perfect maturity before

64

ES AND FORAGE-PLANTS

the cold season. The quantity of seed to the acre will vary from 41b. to 61b., according to quality and state of the soil. It should be sown in drills, the distances between the rows and in the drills also varying with the conditions : eighteen inches between the rows, and the seed dibbled in at intervals of twelve inches, make good distances, the plants being thinned out, if found necessary, to insure full exposure to the sun, a condition essential to securing good heads of seed. A sufficient interval between the plants is the more necessary from their habit of spreading their branches and heads in successive layers one over another. When twelve inches high the plants benefit by a slight earthing-up.

The only objection that appears to the cultivation arises from the inequality with which the heads ripen ; but this objection is thought to be overcome by the cultivation of late years of a species producing only one large flower to each plant. A \ ield of fifty bushels to the acre, under favourable conditions, is not uncommon.

In the year 1573 some interesting experiments were made at Bangalore, in India, by Colonel Boddam, to test the value of the sunflower as a cultivated plant. The seed used was the Giant Russian, which is double the size of the ordinary seed. Six pounds were sown in drills three feet apart on the 29th August, 1873, and the plants were harvested in the last week of Di her. They were seven to eight feet high, each bearing one large head; the largest of six taken from a plot of average growth was thirty-five inches in circumference, weighed 31b., and contained 1,875 seeds. The others ranged from twenty-nine to twenty-five inches in circumference, averaging about lib. in weight, and the seeds varying in number from 1,000 to I The leaves were sun-dried and pounded, and made 5001b. in dry fodder, which, mixed with meal or bran, was fed to milch cows with good effect. The dried leaves will keep for a long time. The seed, after being husked, was made into course meal, which was pressed for oil, about lewt. of the meal yielding three gallons of oil and 351b. of oil-cake. Colonel Boddam says that the empty seed-bead and stalks make good fuel ; and the p which they produced made an excellent manure for coffee and tobacco.

The sunflower will grow in almost any soil and in any climate. It -will bear cold or heat, drought or rain. The seed

C 5

tTSEFUIi TO Ni:\v v.v. u.\N[>.

and carries «ell. and presents the further advantage as a crop that it can lie gathered and stored until the grower has time and opportunity to turn it into money.

The sunflower La subject to no disease or climatic disqualification. It can be tried in any odd cornel- of the farm, and, if successful, is as simple as maize to grow upon a larger scale next year: but the plant has many more uses than maize, and is a much more sure and unvarying source of profit.— (From "Cultural Industries of Queensland," In Lewis Adolphus Bernavs, F.L.S.. P.R.G.S.)

s—Pt. I.

FLOWER. HELIANTHUS ANN!

28.

Mi FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

07

■ Artichoke (Helianihus tuberosus)

Pig. 29.

This plant occupies the same place in the botanical system as the sunflower. Its leaves are rough; stem 6ft. to 10ft. in height ; root tuberous like that of the potato; and it is generally propagated by small tubers, or cuttings of tubers, the same as the potato. It is perennial, a native of Brazil, and was introduced into Europe in IGI7. The term Jerusalem is a corruption of the Italian word girasole —turning to the sun—a property imputed to this genus of plants. Fowls, particularly pheasants, also pigs and cattle, arc remarkably fond of its tubers. They tire produced in considerable quantities, and, as tiny tire not to be injured t, their cultivation for feeding the above-mentioned live-stock in winter lias been recommended. They tire also, as is well known, eaten at table, cooked in various The leaves and stems contain much nitrogen, which render* then lib their palatability, good for cattle-food.

The ash of the tubers, according to Boussingault, consists of the following ingredients :

Potash ... ... ... ... 54'67

Soda ... ... ... ... Traces

Lime ... ... ... ... 2'82

Magnesia ... ... ... 2‘21

Oxide of iron, alumina, &c. ... ... 6'39

Phosphoric acid ... ... ... 13'27

Sulphuric acid ... ... ... 2'70

Chlorine ... ... ... 197

Silica ... ... ... ... 15'97

100-00

Percentage of ash in dry state ... 6'00

Fig

Jerusalem Artichoke

09

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO Ni:\Y ZEALAND.

ILir-E (Brassica rapus).

Fig. 30.

A biennial plant, much cultivated both on account of its herbage and its oil-producing seeds. It is a native of Europe. The root of rape is slender. The stem is taller than that of the turnip, and the foliage more luxuriant. The cultivation of rape is very general in many parts of Europe, from which it seems to have been introduced into England. Large quantities of oil arc made from its seeds, chiefly in the fenny and other alluvial districts of the East of England, where also it has long been extensively employed for feeding sheep. On the Continent it is not unusual to sow rape for green manuring, ploughing its herbage into the soil, a mode of enriching land much more common in some parts of Europe than in Britain. Rape delights in a rich alluvial soil, and is particularly suitable for newly-re-claimed bogs or swamps, in which the turnip does not succeed well; but it is also extensively cultivated in the chalk and limestone districts of the South of England. The mode of cultivation does not differ much from that of the turnip. In New Zealand it is often sown broadcast, with 41b. to 51b. of seed to the acre. To afford a regular succession of food it should be sown in this country at three different periods during November and December, and the sheep arc put upon it three months after it has been sown. It will thus come in at a period when it is most wanted, when the freshness of the grass pastures is on the decline, and before the turnips are fully grown. In rich soils rape sometimes attains a height of three or four feet, so that the sheep turned in arc hidden beneath the leaves, and seem to eat their way into the field. They eat the stalks even more greedily than the leaves. A too exclusive feeding on rape is, however, apt to produce diseases, which a sprinkling of salt and a supply of hay are found useful in preventing.

F.g. 30.

Rape. ASSIC'A NAPI

BRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

141

Cabbage (Brassica oleracea).

Fig. 31.

There is no more useful crop than cabbages—the drumhead kind is the best—for the autumnal fattening of cattle, sheep, or pigs. They are available for consumption when other green food is scarce. But the plant may be cultivated at different periods of the year. In New Zealand young cabbages planted out in April and May will yield crops available for consumption in December, January, and February.

Fig. 81.

Cabbage. BBASSICA OLERACEA.

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

73

Thousand-headed Kale.

Fig. 32.

This hardy and highly productive member of the cabbagetribe was, no doubt, in the first instance, like sainfoin and lucerne, introduced into England from France. It produces a large amount of feed, and, like the cabbage, it possesses the merit of affording highly serviceable green food at very different periods of the year. It will keep well in frost, and in wet weather stock will thrive better on it than on turnips. It is a useful sheep-feed on all lands that are at all unkind to turnips. In winter it is a valuable food for milch cows. It has been grown in New Zealand, and can be sown from the beginning of September to the end of February. In this latter month it is a useful crop to sow amongst the stubbles after a corn crop. It requires 41b. of seed to the acre, which should be sown in drills from eighteen inches to two feet apart with an ordinary turnip-drill.

Pi"

Thousand-headed Kale.

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

75

Ti"is n i v ( Brassica rapa).

Fig. 33.

A biennial plant, of which there arc two kinds of great value for feeding cattle —namely, the improved Swede and the greentopped Aberdeen. Although the introduction of it into general field-culture was one of the greatest improvements ever effected in the husbandry of Britain, yet it is not very nutritious, no less than 90 to 96 parts of its weight actually consisting of water. The Swedish Turnip, or Ruta Baca, was introduced into cultivation in Britain from the North of Europe more recently than the common turnip, and has proved of very great value to the farmer. It grows best in a rich free soil. The mode of culture varies with the soil. Where the soil is light and dry, a smaller amount of ploughing, harrowing, and drilling is necessary than on stiff soils. The turnip is not well suited to clay soils, although it is often grown on them. A complete pulverization of the soil is requisite before the sowing of the seed. On light soils a crop of turnips generally succeeds wheat or oats as a rotation crop. The land is generally made up in raised drills by the plough, and the seed, from 31b. to 51b. an acre, is sown by the drillingmachine on the top of the narrow ridges, which are about 27in. apart. The most approved method now of sowing turnip seed is by the water-drill with manure and water. The water aids the distribution of the manure, and causes rapid germination of the seed. (See lecture of Mr. W. E. Ivey, Principal of the Agricultural College, Lincoln, Canterbury, on the turnip, in the Otago Witness of the 12th November, 1886.) Small doses of guano, superphosphate of lime, crushed bones, or other such manures, produce great crops of turnips. They seem to act chiefly when the plant is young ; and when it is further advanced it derives nutriment from the soil, and even from the subsoil, by deeply-penetrating roots, and from the atmosphere by its large leaves. The young plants are thinned out by the hand-hoe to a foot or upwards apart, and the ground is stirred and carefully kept clean by the plough or horse-hoc. The turnip crop is thus of great use in clearing the land of weeds. In many places part of the crop is eaten on the ground by sheep, which are confined to a small part of the field by means of movable fences. It is common to leave one of each three rows of turnips for this purpose, the other two rows being carried to

76

GBASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

the farm-yard for feeding cattle, or stored. They are stored either in a house, or in conical heaps, covered with their own leaves, or with straw and earth. They arc sometimes protected from frost by being earthed up in rows by the plough. Some kinds are much more easily injured by frost than others; the Swedish turnip least of all.

The introduction of the turnip as a field-crop is one of the most important events in the history of British agriculture. It has rendered possible a rotation of crops, which has been extremely advantageous, and has made the supply of butcher-meat more constant, by providing a supply of winter-food for cattle and sheep, whereas formerly all depended on the pasture. Moist weather, both in summer and autumn, is most suitable to its growth.

In New Zealand a great deal of land which has been merely surface-sown with one or two kinds of grass seeds, the produce of which has been early exhausted by the close feeding of cattle and sheep, is often ploughed and sown with turnip seed broadcast, the yield from which is also fed off with cattle and sheep, by which the soil is manured considerably, and rendered suitable for either a grain crop or laying down in permanent pasture, according to circumstances.

T URNIP. BRA8SICA RAPA.

Fig

77

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW Z]

Mustard [Sinapis . |White Mustard (Sinapis alba).

Fig. 34.

Mustard is often sown for feeding slieep and cattle when a turnip or rape crop lias failed. It is sown broadcast, at the rate of lib. to 51b. to the acre. It grows best on alluvial soil. The seed germinates more quickly than the turnip, and it is the practice of some fanners to take advantage of this to divert the turnip-fly from the turnip plants, by mixing with the turnip seed about lib. of mustard to 41b. of turnip seed. The result is that the mustard plants appear sooner than the turnip ones, and the fly settles first on the former, leaving the latter almost unmolested.

Fig. 34.

Mustard. SINAPIS.

79

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

Sugar-beet (Be/a alba).

Fig. 35.

There are iu cultivation four kinds of beet, viz. :—

(1.) The long red, or garden-beet, so much used as a salad;

(2.) The white Silesian, or sugar-beet, with its sub-variety the rose-coloured ;

(3.) The sea-beet, the leaves of which are well known as an excellent substitute for spinach ;

(4.) The mangold-wurzel, or field-heet

Von Thae'r, a German writer on agriculture, is of opinion that the field-beet is a hybrid betwixt the red garden-beet and the white sugar-beet. Others say that it is the original stock, and that the finer varieties have been produced from it by higher cultivation—a more likely conjecture.

Of the white sugar-beet (Beta alba) there are more than one species. It has a pear-shaped root and light-green top, green leaves, with lighter coloured ribs and white flesh. There is a variety of it which has a rose-coloured skin, leaves marked by purple-coloured ribs, but the flesh is white like that of the former. There is no difference in their sugar-yielding qualities.

The average temperature of the continental beet-growing countries, and of the localities in England where beets are grown to advantage, ranges from 62° to 65° Fahr.

The average composition of the root of the sugar-beet of France, Belgium, and the Rhenish provinces, is theoretically nearly as follows :

Sugar ... ... ... 10i per cent

Gluten ... ... ... 3 „

Fibre ... ... ... 5 „

Water ... ... ... 81i ,,

100

Practically, the percentage of sugar extracted reaches about 8 per cent. But the proportion varies very much. Thus it is greater—

(1.) In small beets than in large. Chemical inquiry has proved that the proportion of sugar was larger and of salt less in beets not weighing more than 31b. ; 1 per cent, of salt in the sap will render 3 per cent, of the sugar uncrystallizable. The best roots weigh, on an average, from Hlb. to 2ilb. each.

80

GRASSES AND FOBAGE-PL.VXTS

(.2.) In dry climates, and especially when the climate is dry after the roots have begun to swell.

(3.) When grown in light potato or barley soils than in heavy soils. The land should be well drained, and capable of being cultivated to a depth of eighteen inches.

(1.) In the part under than above ground. The tap root is the richest in sugar.

(5.) When manure has not been directly applied to the crop, as its contact with the plants occasions unequal growth, as well as infests them with various kinds of insects. Strictly speaking, the manure should be worked into the ground some months previously to the seed being sown. Superphosphate of lime and bone-dust are the best manures for this root.

It has been proved that a crop raised by means of the direct application of manure contains more salt and gives more uncrystallizable syrup than when raised without direct manuring. At the factory where this was tested a larger price, therefore, was offered for roots grown upon land which had been manured during the previous winter; a higher still for such as were raised after a manured crop of corn ; and a still higher w'hen after the manuring two crops of corn were taken before the beet was sown.

In France and Belgium the crops gathered are from fourteen to fifteen tons an acre, while about Magdeburg, in Prussian Saxony, they do not exceed ten or twelve tons. But the latter are richer in sugar and poorer in salts in proportion.

These facts show how much practical agriculture, as well as climate, has to do with the success of this important manufacture.

Having regard therefore to the use and application of suitable manures, and the proper rotation of crops, the mechanical cultivation of the sugar-beet should bo pursued as follows :

The ground is to lie prepared for it in the same manner as for mangold-wurzcl, turnips, or carrots. The best seed is to be got from Magdeburg, in Prussia, or from M. Yilmorin, the celebrated seedsman in Paris. It should be sown in this country in October. Ten pounds to twelve pounds of seed is the quantity required per English acre. Sugar-beets arc planted more closely than mangolds. The distance between the rows, and from plant to plant, should not be less than twelve inches nor greater than eighteen inches. If the young plants are

81

USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

caught in spring by a night's frost they should be ploughed up and fresh seed sown. They should be horse- and hand-hoed. The earth should be well gathered up round caeh plant, in order that the head of each root may be completely covered with soil. When the roots begin to show the commencement of decay in the leaves they are ripe, and should be dug out, the mould gently shaken off, and the heads cut off together with as much of the roots as shows the presence of leaf-buds. They should then be piled in heaps on the ground to hinder the evaporation of their moisture, and covered with a layer of earth to protect them from light and frost. A beet-root of good quality should uot exceed three pounds in weight, and should be firm, brittle, emitting a creaking noise not unlike a pineapple when cut, and perfectly sound within; the degree of sweetness is also a good indication. — (From "Transactions and Proceedings of ,' Zealand Institute, 1872," Vol. V., pp. 185, 486, 487. Abstract of Paper "On the Cultivation of Sugar-beet in New Zealand," by T. Mackay, C.E.)

6—Pt. I.

BETA ALBA

Fig. 35

83

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

Mangold-Wtjrzel.

Pig. 3C.

A name in general use to designate the varieties of the common beet cultivated in fields for the feeding of cattle. The field-beets differ from the garden-beets chiefly in being larger in all their parts, and coarser. They have large roots, which in some of the varieties are red, in some greenish or whitish, in some carrot-shaped, and in some nearly globular. The cultivation of mangold as a field-crop was introduced into England from Germany in 1876, but it is only of late that it has much extended. At first so little was its value known that the leaves alone were used as food for cattle. Its importance, however, was --0011 appreciated, and it rapidly gained favour. It is much more patient of a high temperature than the turnip, liable to fewer diseases, and vastly more productive under liberal treatment. In the Island of Jersey, and in highly-manured grounds in the vicinity of London, as much as seventy to eighty tons to the acre have been raised. Throughout the South of England it is generally admitted that it is as easy to grow thirty tons of mangold to the acre as twenty tons of Swedish turnips.

The lower temperature of Scotland, however, does not admit of the crop being raised to the same advantage. The yield is much smaller than in the South, and the plants are more liable to run to flower. This seems to be owing to the cold contracting the vessels, and in some measure acting in the same manner as a diminished supply of food in favouring the formation of seed. The increased precariousnessof the turnip-crop in Britain of late years, however, has induced many to make trial of the cultivation of mangold, and with considerable success. The mode of culture there docs not vary materially from that followed in raising turnips. The land receives a deep furrow in autumn, and, if quite free from weeds, it is well manured. In the spring, drills or ridges from twenty to thirty inches wide are formed by the double-mouldboard plough ; and if manure has not been applied in autumn, from twenty to thirty loads per acre are spread along the furrows. In addition, from 3c\vt. to 4ewt. of guano, and lcwt. of common salt, arc sown broadcast over the drills; indeed, this crop can rarely be over-manured. The manures are then covered by the plough, and the ridges are afterwards run over with a light roller to smooth them down.

SI

PES AND FOBAGE-PIiAl

Two or three seeds are then dibbled in on the top of the ridgi from tv. .•■bout 711) of seed to i and, as t', I in a hard and rough coat, they may be mi in water for two day; previous to their being : loting a quick and re rd. The long red, the i the round green-topped yellow a e i 11 fa : id. As arc singled out by the han . the same in all re The i is usually rea ly to b autumn; indeed, it should not be i ing originally a native of the \ ts of the Mediterranean, it is injured hy severe frost. The d, and the earth is merely roi j the roots, as they do not keep well through the win' or bruised. The roots arc stored end a little earth as a protection in i after storing before the roots can he used witli adva : in autumn and the early part of winter their juice i, ned, have a laxate lish turnips are at red for feeding; hut the old wears off hy spring, and it then becomes an i stuck of all kinds, and, if well kept, retains its j middle of summer.

Fig. SO.

Mangel Wurzi

\\D FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

85

Carrot (Daucus carota).

Fig. 37

The common carrot is a biennial plant common in Britain and most parts of Europe. The small and early kinds are cultivated for culinary use, the larger and late kinds for feeding cattle and horses. Of the latter the Altringham carrot is most generally grown. The carrot prefers a light and rather sandy soil, and often succeeds well on a peat-soil. About 101b. of to the acre should be sown. As an article of food it contains a large amount of what are fat- and heat-producing muds, with a small proportion of flesh-forming matter. It con entially of starch, sugar, and albumen. The following is the composition of dried carrot:

Starch and sugar ... ... ... 93-71

Albumen ... ... ... 4-35

Red neutral substance (carotin) ... 0'34

Fixed and volatile oils ... ... 1-00 A oli r\. f?r\

A-sh ... ... ... ... 0'60

100-00

Fig. 37

Carrot. DAUCUS CAROTA.

87

GRABSES AND FOBAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND,

Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa).

Fig. 38.

The common parsnip is a native of England, and is abundant in some districts, particularly in chalky or gravelly soils. It is also found in many parts of Europe, and of the North of Asia. It is a biennial, and has long been cultivated for the sake of its root, which is more nutritious than that of the carrot. The produce is also, on many soils, of large quantity; and, although the parsnip delights in a very open rich soil, it will succeed in clayey soils far too stiff for the carrot. It is not so extensively cultivated as a field-crop as it ought to be, more particularly as cattle are very fond of it; and not only is the flesh of those fed on it of excellent quality, but the butter of dairy-cows fed on parsnips in winter is far superior to that produced by almost any other kind of winter-feeding. The mode of cultivation scarcely differs from that of the carrot, and about 101b. of seed to the acre should be sown. There are several varieties in cultivation. A very large variety, cultivated in the Channel Islands on deep sandy soils, has roots sometimes three or four feet long, but this is fully twice the ordinary length. It is improved rather than injured by frost; but is apt to become rusty if allowed to remain too long in the ground, and exhibits acrid qualities after it has begun to grow again in the spring, so it should be taken up and pitted in the same way as carrots before winter is over.

Fig. 38

Parsnip.

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PL ;i;L TO NEW ZEALAND

89

Field Pea (Pisum arvense).

Fig. 39.

Peas are cultivated to a considerable extent as a field-crop, but are best adapted to districts in which the climate is least moist, the seeds being very apt to grow in the pods when moist weather prevails in autumn, by which the crop is injured or destroyed. The haulm or straw of peas is used for feeding cattle; and, for its sake, field peas are often reaped before they are quite ripe, great care being taken in stacking the straw to provide for ventilation, so that it may not heat. Pea haulm is more nitrogenous and more nutritious than hay.

Land to be sown ■with field peas should be very clean, and, in particular, free from couch-grass ■ otherwise the best management cannot prevent its becoming foul whilst bearing the peacrop. The seed —three bushels to the acre—ought always to be sown in rows twelve inches apart, or, in rich soils, eighteen or twenty inches apart, and should not be buried more than three to four inches under the surface. All possible means ought to be used to keep the land free from weeds. Peas are often sown broadcast, which renders it impossible to do anything for this purpose. In the harvesting of peas the sheaves are generally left loose till the haulm is somewhat dry. In drying it shrinks very much. Broadcast peas are often cut with the scythe, and the harvesting of them is managed much as that of hay.

Peas and beans when sown together—one and a half bushels of each—in alternate rows, produce a better crop than sown senaratelv.

Field Pea. PISUM AEVENSE.

Fig. 39.

91

GRASSES AND FOHAGE-PIiANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

Eield Bean (Faba).

Fig. -10.

The bean was cultivated, to a small extent at least, in ancient times, both in Palestine and Egypt. The Roman family of the Fabii are said to have derived their name from this plant. It requires a rich or alluvial land to grow the bean in perfection, and hence it is only found entering into a regular rotation of cropping upon soils of the best class. Since the introduction of maize into the South of Europe, the land under this plant has been considerably restricted. The maize thrives better, and is far more productive, than the bean in warm climates. Indeed, the high summer temperature of the continents of Europe and America is by no means favourable to the growth of the bean. In the "West of England the summers are rather too moist for its yielding its seeds in abundance. The straw and haulm arc apt to be developed too much, and the blossoms do not set well. Beans are largely cultivated on all the better descriptions of clay soils in the eastern counties, such as Kent and Suffolk. The variety most generally grown there is the common tick or field bean, having much resemblance to the Scotch or horse bean.

The modes of cultivation arc very various, and a large breadth is still sown broadcast. The great objection to this mode is the liability of weeds to spring up and cheek the growth of the crop. Beans are considered one of the fallow crops; but the soil, after it has borne a crop of beans, is little fitted for a cereal crop unless it has been hoed and kept clean in summer. To effect this end beans are usually sown in rows eighteen inches apart, using three bushels to the acre, and hoed during their early growth either by the hand or horse-hoe to keep the crop free from weeds, which is repeated as often as it is deemed advisable, until the crop covers in the land with its abundant foliage, and keeps down all weeds. The produce varies from twenty to forty bushels per acre; but in dry and warm seasons it often falls below the first-named quantity. The weight per bushel is from 601b. to Glib. The straw forms good fodder both for cattle and horses, as well as supplying material for the dung-heap. Beans are usually cut by the sickle or scythe, allowed to lie a few days unbound to winnow, and, when bound, put up into stocks. The field bean is considered to be specially

GRASSES AND FOItAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

92

adapted for feeding of horses accustomed to hard work. For this purpose it is usually roughly ground, and mixed with a little hran. A mixture of ground heans and oilcake, or linseed, is much esteemed for milch cows, as well as for fattening cattle and sheep.

Fig. 40

Field Bean. FAB A.

CHAPTER V.

COMPARATIVE NUTRITIVE VALUE OF THE GRASSES.

[ the descriptions in the second and third chapters of the various grasses, both natural and artificial, it will be seen that differ con i each other in nutritive value : that are most nutritious when green or in flower, others when ieed is ripe and the plant mature ; that some yield a plentiful •math, while others scarcely any at all; that, according to their nature, some flourish on low and others on elevated lands ; and that there is scarcely any climate, or any kind of soii, whether rich or sterile, sandy or loamy, but that a grass may be found adapted to it.

Some species, particularly the annual and biennial kinds, which are not usually grazed, but cut for either grccn-feeding or for hay, generally grow best alone, or only when associated with another —for instance, Italian rye-grass and red clover; while others, which may be termed the perennial kinds, flourish best when grown together in suitable combinations according to soil, situation, and climate, as may be best adapted to the different kinds of stock intended to be grazed upon them.

In the rearing of cattle and sheep, and their preparation, commercially speaking, for market, they should be fed upon such s and forage-plants as combine the necessary relative proportions of nutritive substances that will most speedily effect the object in view.

To learn, therefore, the comparative nutritive value of each species worth cultivating is important. Such a study, how-

184

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS

ever, is attended with difficulties, and it is only of late years that accurate researches have been made with such positive results as would be entitled to full confidence.

The first practical experiments to ascertain the comparative value of most of the grasses grown in Europe were initiated in 18:21 by the then Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey. They were conducted by his head gardener, Mr. George Sinclair, E.L.S., under the direction of the late Sir Humphry Davy, and arc detailed in a work under the title of " Hortus Gramincus "VVoburnensis." This was the first text-book worthy of notice on the subject, and is looked to as an authority down to the present time. Next came the later and more elaborate analyses made by Professor Way, Chemist of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, and published in the journal of that society, "\ 01. XH ~ Ist Series, 1853. But the methods of these two pioneers in this particular field of research are now obsolete, for the more recent and exhaustive investigations of such eminent agricultural chemists as the late Dr. Augustus Voelcker, of the Agricultural College, Cirencester; his son, Dr. J. Augustus Voelcker, Sir John B. Lawes, and others in England, as well as of the professors of chemistry at the experimental stations of the United States Department of Agriculture, have proved to be the most practical, from the fresb light which, by the advanced methods of analysis of the present day, such investigations have thrown on the comparative values of the several grasses which have been experimented upon, and which comprise most of the various kinds already described in this work. A study of these investigations shows clearly that the composition of the plant varies according to difference of soil, situation, climate, time when cut, and general surroundings, so that the publication of chemical analyses is of little use unless accompanied by descriptions setting forth the above particulars. The conclusion the compiler of a report of the United States department on the subject arrives at is, to use his own words, " Species are not in themselves at all fixed in their composition, there being as large variations among specimens of the same as between specimens of different species." For instance, in the case of timothy grass, procured from different localities in the Stales, the table below will show a wide margin of difference in some of the most important constituents of the plant.

95

CSEFUX TO NEW ZEALAND

Analysis of Timotliy Grass. (Cut in full bloom.)

Even a superficial glance at the foregoing table will also show that in the grass grown in the Department Garden in 1881 there is twice as much fat, and also twice as much albuminoids (flesh-forming elements), as in that grown in Indiana; and, again, one cannot fail to be struck with the difference in the analysis of the timothy grown in the Department Garden in 1880 as compared with 1881.

It will thus be seen that, as in New Zealand the conditions of soil, situation, and climate ma}' differ in many ways from those of the countries in which the experiments referred to have been carried on, it would not be of much practical use to give any details of such experiments, or to pursue this subject further at present. Nevertheless, in reference to what is indicated in the Introduction to this part of the Manual respecting the subject of Part 111., yet to be published, it may be here stated that a comprehensive system of experiments, both in the cultivation and in the chemical analysis of the various grasses and forageplants already described in the preceding Chapters 11., 111., and IV., as well as of the useful indigenous grasses of New Zealand, which will be treated of in Part 11., is now being carried on, specially for the purposes of this work, at the Agricultural Lincoln, Canterbury, the results of which it is expected will establish full and reliable data on these important questions for the future guidance of the agriculturists of New Zealand.

CHAPTER VI

THE INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE AND SEASONS ON THE GRASSES.

There is no crop more dependent on the s the grasses. A moist spring, with rai -tribute;! over the months of September, October, and November, in New * will insure luxuriant crops of grass and hay, but a dry cold spring is fatal to their rapid and ipment. Sir James Hector, K.C.M.G., f'.il.S., Director of Geological Survey of New Zealand, in his " Handbook of New Zealand," states that "the climate n that of Great Britain, but is more equable, the extremes of daily temperature only varying throughout the year b of 20°, whilst London is 7° colder than the North and colder than the South Island of New Zealand. The mean annual temperature of the North Island is 57°, and of the South Island 52°, that of London and Nov,- York bein<* 51°. The mean annual temperature of the different seasons of the whole colony is—in spring, 55°; in summer, 63°; in autumn, 57°; and in winter, 48°."

Mean Annual Rainfall.

North Island. In.

South Island. In.

Nelson 61-599

Auckland ... 45'300

Taranaki ... 58-081

Hokitika ... ] 12-150

Napier 37\2G0

Christchurch ... 25-771

Wellington ... 50781

Dunedin ... 32-019

Southland ... 43'674

From these particulars it will be easily understood that, from the equable temperature on the one hand and the abundaii! fall on the other, the evaporation from the soil is more and the actual amount of moisture in the air is greater, for the evaporation is in proportion to the height of the temperature and the extent of water- or land-surface.

7—Ft. I.

97

GRASSES AND FORAGE-I>LANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

The differences in climate that influence and control the growth of the grasses arc chiefly moisture and dryness. Moisture must exist in the soil or the atmosphere. A luxuriant crop of mass depends not so much upon the aggregate animal quantity of rain that falls as upon its distribution over the year, especially over the growing mouths. A frequent rain in spring, though it may come in small quantities, causes a rapid and succulent growth ; but grass derives more benefit from large quantities of rain falling at longer intervals, provided it does not come in torrents to prostrate a hay or seed crop, and that the intervals are not so long as to produce droughts. The quantity in the latter case will not ordinarily be so great as in the former, but the nutritive and fattening qualities will be better. And so it is likewise with cereals of all kinds.

CHAPTER VII

SELECTION, MIXTURE, AND SOWING OF GRASSSEEDS FOR PERMANENT PASTURE.

It is the experience of every person who has paid any attention to the selection of grass-seeds that it is almost an impossibility to get them pure from mixture either with bad or old seeds or with other kinds than that which they purport to be. As an illustration of this, Mr. Faunce-De Laune, in his valuable article in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England— Second Series, Volume XYIII., Part 1, No. xxxv.—" On laying down Land to Permanent Grass," gives the following account of the difficulties he encountered in procuring pure mixtures of grass-seed :

"Nine years ago circumstances led me to lay down to permanent pasture certain portions of land; and I did as most others have done ordered the ordinary mixture for permanent pastures from one of the best seed-merchants. My first attempts were on a piece of arable land of six and apiece of woodland, —the underwood, after having been cut down, being fed off with sheep. The six acres I mowed twice the first year; the piece of woodland could not be mown, and therefore was fed off with sheep.

" I saw in tlie woodland a grass I had not specially noticed before, and therefore got a hook on grasses (' Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis ') to find out the name, and found it was timothy, or cat's-tail : this led to my finding out that there was a great difference in the feeding properties of the numerous grasses, and in my next attempt I ordered the grasses for myself, still ordering, as recommended by seed-merchants, a large quantity of strictly permanent rye-grass. This I watched carefully. "When it came to flower and seed, the proportion of other grasses was so small that the pasture might have been taken for rye-grass

99

ES AND POBAGE-PLANTS CSEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

alone. I noticed in my pastures the deterioration so much complained of by others, and was determined to find out the cause, and, luckily for myself, purchased Sinclair's hook —the one above mentioned. T gradually learnt to know all the most valuable grasses in nearly all stages of their growth, and found that, however careful 1 was in my orders, and from whatever seed-merchant I ordered my seeds, the percentage of rye-grass, soft woolly grass (Yorkshire fog), and other bad grasses and . was beyond belief. In order more carefully to test the results, I :< need off a small portion of some of the newly-sown meadows. I found in a pi< i quare about six plants of cocksfoot, one meadow foxtail, two meadow fescue, live or six i dog's-tail, and the rest rye-grass, Yorkshire fog, perennial clover, and weeds. I then got an introduction to Mr. W. Garruthers, P.R.S., the Consulting Botanist of the Royal Agri,l Society, and by means of his able help and valuable nation w : closer experiments. From was most difficult to get ; and, to ilhisti dt, I will give some of my experience. I had i ; le land I wished to sow with permanc d ; the laud was not only very good, but ly manured ily clean, having been a hopgarden, f divided this field into three parts, one to be sown :ond with meadow fescue, and the third with lered with special care the of the great seed-merchants, and id crop of seed, not : . ordi red of a particular kind from a firm of repute it would be anything but good. But after a iwth, although I was satisfied that the cocksfoot was true, my suspicions were aroused about the others, and I sent some of the seed that was left to be examined by Mr. Carruthers. To my great amazement I was told that the meadow- fescue was all n and the rough meadow-grass (Poa trivialis) all smooth meadow lis). There was nothing left for it but in the best way possible to destroy all the grass, and resow it."

After describing other similar experiments with similar results he goes on to say,—

"A tenant of mine, having purchased a permanent-grass mixture from one of the large seedsmen, at a cost of £1 15s.

100

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS

per acre, mowed the land sown with the seed (supposed to be twenty-eight acres), and at my request Mr. Carrnthers inspected the stack, and gave the following result of the examination of the hay, the clover being excluded from the estimate :

Couch-grass .... 4

"Cocksfoot .... 12

Meadow fescue .... 2

Woolly soft grass.... 7

Sweet vernal .... 3

Oats 3

Crested dog's-tail .... 8

Barley 11

Rough meadow-grass 6

Brome-grass .... 2

Golden oat-grass .... 4

Rye-grass .... 941

Soft creeping-grass 2

Total .... 1,005

“ If we exclude tlie oats and barley, together with the worthless grasses w'hich may possibly have been in the ground, and treat the remaining individual grasses as if they were pounds, we have the following remarkable and instructive results : 351b. of good grasses (the first six in the list), at an average cost of 9d. per lb., w'ould cost £1 6s. 3d.; and 9411b. of ryegrass at l|d. per lb., would come to £5 17s. 7d.; making a total of £7 3s. lOd. The 9761b. of mixed seed for permanent pasture, at 9d. per lb., cost £36 125.; making, on the data supplied by the hay, a difference of £29 Bs. 2d. between the real value of the seeds and the price paid to the seedsman for the mixture.

“ But this loss of nearly £3O is nothing compared to the real loss when the consequential damage is taken into account.

"The land from which this crop was taken having subsequently come into my own hands, I have sown a considerable quantity of good grass-seed on it; but 1 have found in this ease, as in others where originally a large proportion of rye-grass had been sown, it is very difficult to get other grasses to grow. I have come to the conclusion that rye-grass is certain to cause exhaustion of the soil, an opinion in which there arc many to support me; although others, doubtless are ready to dispute it.

" Having arrived at the point of the necessity of eliminating rye-grass, it may Eairly be asked. How are we to get the grasses? I have succeeded, after verj much difficulty, in getting all grasses good, by getting different grass seeds from

101

USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

different merchants, and. when the seed was not sufficiently good to sow, leaving it and trusting to next year ; hut when it was only inferior in germinating power I have sown an extra quantity to make up for want of this quality."

Such painstaking and practical experiments as Mr. FaunceDe Laune describes prove clearly that no one can have any surety of having good seed unless he either pursues a similar course, or raises seed for himself, or uses that which he knows has been carefully raised in his neighbourhood.

Tii seeds of some plants retain their vitality much longer than others. Those of the turnip, for instance, will germinate as well, or nearly so, at four or live years as when only one or two years old ; they arc thought to he better at two years old than one. But the seeds of most of the grasses are of very little value when they have been kept for two or three years ; hence the importance of procuring new and fresh seeds from good plants of three years old or upwards, and guarding against sowing any mixture that is composed of old and worthless . as well as immature or imperfect ones from too young plants.

It is easy to tell whether the gcrminative power of grass or any other seed still n ; the following simple method; and, if the buyer should he willing to try it, he might purchase only a small quantity at first, and afterwards obtain a full supply with more confidence if the trial showed it to he good. Take two . of thick cloth, or old flannel, or blanket, moisten tlicm with water, and place them one upon the other in the bottom of a saucer. Place any number of the seeds which it is desired to try upon the cloth, spreading thin, so as not to allow them to cover or touch each other. Cover them over with a third piece of cloth similar to the others, and moistened in the same manner.

Then place the saucer in a moderately warm place. Sufficient water must be turned on from time to time to keep the three thicknesses of cloth moist, but great care must be taken not to use too much water, as this would destroy the seed. There should he only enough to moisten the cloths, and not enough to allow any to stand in the saucer. Danger from this source may he avoided in a great measure, however, by tipping up the saucer so as to permit any superfluous matter in it to drain off. The cloth used for covering may he gently

GBASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS

102

raised each day to watch th ' the swelling of tl. seeds, or of becoming mouldy. The good, seed will be foun to swell gradually, while the old or poor seed, whic lost its germinating power, will become mouldy in a very fe davs.

this way, also, any one can 1 is mixed with new. The latter will ge much more quick!. the former. lie can, moreover, judge of the quantity hj" must sow, since he can tell whethi ', or three-fourths, or the whole will he likely to g . and can • Singly. The seeds of the eld new and wdll show their germs on the third or fourth day; 0 will take a little longer, but, till they become coated with mould, there is hope of mould appears it is decisive, and the seed that 0101!::' less.

1 is difficult to overestimate the importance to the far of a good selection and proper mixture of g ds for the various pur] ultivation —for ,or for an alt op. As regards that of urage, the : of Mr. Carru Consulting Botanist of the EO3 ral Soeiet;. land, "On laying down Laud to Permanent Pasture" Council of the Sociciy on February 1, ' much practical informati

—„~~ x —~ " lu dc ■ the grasses be t fitted ' >wn land in pasture, it is important to : the term of life of the different

" Many grasses arc so sh do not survive the exhaustive process of seeding. One-third of our indigenous [English] grasses die in thi a single season, and are then Not onlv the portion of the plant ab id hut the roots also perish, anil the species is pre >m year I the seed. The remaining two-thirds are ;. . which the process of (lowering does not so tin- plant as to kill it. The life of the individuals in these grasses is conti from year to year, and seeds are annually produced,. Though the plant may he killed down by the winter's cold, the roots with their crown remain alive, and, in, n their hj the soil, are able to secure a more spi .

USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

103

than can he produced under the most favourable circumstances from seeds.

" While annual grasses, or those having a short term of life, like the rye-grasses, may be specially fitted for alternate husbandry, it is obvious that pi rmanent pasture should I),' formed of es which have a perennial existence. But the eighty is of indigenous perennial grasses are not all suitable Eor feeding purposes ; many of them are rejected by stock, it is therefore I i make a selection from them in accordance with the of the animals for which they arc provided. And, Eurther, it has ;n noticed that some pastures which appear to an abundant supply of good food are yet unable to must limit the selection of the grasses to which, by experiment and observation, have been found to be nutritious as well as palatable.

"A prejudice exists against some grasses, which arc supposed to be coarse, and arc therefore rejected when finer grasses can be obtained by the stock. But the chemical examination of and the careful observation of their effect i have shown that the grasses which are most productive i that are most nutritious.

"The numb des is very limited. The observa- ]•:. Faunce-De Laune, which arc supported by the testimony ius careful observers, show that the best re the following five spei Bactylis glomerata, or cocksfoot; Phleum pratense, or timothy; . or meadow foxtail ; i ', or a elatior, or tall fescue.

ese five grasses alone would supply favourite and nutrifood throughout the whole year.

:re should be added some Dutch (white) and pereimia] ime of the smaller, or so-called finer, would be advantageously introduced in order to gecur , es as Poa s, or wood Poa trivialis, or rough-stalked meadow-grass; stolonifera, or fiorin; Cynosurus cristatus, or crested dog's-tail ; An m, or sweet-scented vernal ; and / muscula, or hard fescue. But the real value of the pasture will depend upon the proportion of the five larger grasses which arc found in it. Their first importance is still further shown by the fact that their roots continue to grow

104

QBASSEB AND FOKAGE-n.ANTS

from year to year, and the plants consequently get a firmer hold on the soil, and, having a more extensive root-system than annual grasses, they suffer less from drought.

" The exclusion of the short-lived rye-grasses, which are so overwhelming an ingredient in all permanent-pasture mixtures in the market, will deprive the farmer of that speedy exhibition of a green and vigorous pasture so captivating to the eye, and so often accepted as the best testimony to the value of the mixture employed, hut so worthless as the basis of a permanent pasture.

" It would be an important step in advance if the farmer were to become acquainted with the value and permanence of the best grasses, and see in their growth the best guarantee for his future crop, even though they want the beautiful appearance that a field of young rye-grass presents.

" The species of grass for permanent pasture having been fixed upon, it is of next importance to obtain true, pure, and good seed.

" A guarantee should be obtained from the merchant that the quantity purchased is true to the species wanted and specified, that it is free from weeds, and that a certain percentage of the seeds will germinate. Samples from the bulk should be examined and tested by r a competent person, and the completion of the purchase should depend on the result of this examination and trial.

" The seed should not be left on the surface of the ground, else it may not secure the moisture necessary for its germination, or, when it has begun to germinate, and the delicate embryo has pushed its roots and stem through the covering of the seed, a continuous exposure of a few hours to the hot rays of the sun may kill it. On the other hand, if the seed be too deeply buried in the soil it will fail to germinate. A depth of from half an inch to an inch and a half is most suitable for the grasses that should be employed for permanent pastures."

In illustration of the last paragraph of Mr. Carruthers's report, the following tabic, containing the weight per bushel and .suitable depth of covering of the seeds of must of the natural and artificial grasses described in the first, second, and third chapters, is prepared chiefly from a similar table contained in a valuable (realise on the grasses by Messrs. Lawson and Son.

105

i L TO NEW ZEALAND.

of Edinburgh, the eminent seedsmen, v. ho have paid much attention to this subject :

Weight ok Gbass-seeds asi> Depth of Covebinq.

Column 1 contains the common names of the grasses. Column 2, the average number of pounds in a bushel of the seeds. Column 3, the average number of seeds in an ounce. Column 4 shows the depth of soil, in inches and fractions of an inch, at which the greatest number of seeds germinated. Column 5 shows the depth of soil, in inches and fractions of an inch, at which only one-half of the seeds germinated. Column G shows the least depth of soil, in inches or fractions of an inch, at which none of the seeds germinated. Column 7 shows the average percentage of loss in the weight of the grass, in making it into hay at the time of flowering.

The weight of seeds varies, of course, somewhat from that stated in the above table, according to their quality. Those given in the table are the average weights of good merchantable seed.

The mini 1 , :h species in n pound may be found, of course, by multiplying the numbers in column 3 by 16, the number of ounces in :i pound. It is obvious, however, that these unmbers must vary, like the number of pounds in a bushel ; For it is evident that the lighter the seed the greater will be the number of seeds in a pound. The numbers stated are the btained by careful and repeated trials, and they maybe relied on as the average of well-cleaned seed. The results stated

GI'.ASSES AND FOKAGE-I'LAXTS

10G

in columns !, 5, and G were obtained by careful experiment, and will be found to be very suggestive.

The fact that the soil used in the experi ascertain the proper depth ring was kept moist during the p: ■urination, though freely exposed to the light, accounts for the large number of germinated without any covering whatever. In ordinary field culture some slight cover, ble ; but the figures in column G show the t fact that in our modes of sowing and covering tic great loss of seed from burying too deep, though the depth should be governed somewhat by the nature of the soil, and ure or dr\

In laying down land to permanent pasture it is bear in mind that such species as should be selected, so as to secure a luxuriant growth throi out the season. Further, it is equally essential that the nature of the soil should be considered in the suitable quantity of each kind of se in such soil. The following extract from Mr. Faunce-De Laune's i quoted from in this chapter, will explain this very clearly. He says,—

"My experience would lead me to employ the misstated in the following tables. I have specified the number of seeds that these mixtures contain per acre. If all these were to produce plants, the first growth would still be i of the number that Sinclair lias intin i xisted in i I But my belief is teat the cost of en: cient quantity of seed to produce the 10,000,000 plants in an acre would be too great to make it possible t And yet more important is thi a tbat not only g] economy but greater certainty as to the results will be obtained if the good grasses are allowed partially to seed and sow • selves. A good thick pasture can in this way be secured comparatively small cost.

107

USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND,

108

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS

109

USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

110

GBABBES AND FOBAGE-PLANTS

" Should I receive seeds possessing qualities that induce me to use them, but with germinating power lower than the average, I increase the quantity per acre in proportion to the ascertained deficiency : thus, if only 20 per cent, germinate in a seed which should give GO per cent., I would employ 31b. instead of lib.

"I feel satisfied that, generally, if the principles which I advocate and have practised arc adopted, farmers will not encounter the disappointment which has been so universally experienced in laying down pastures, tie,ugh the absence of annual plants will necessarily deprive the pastures of that verdant and vigorous growth in their first stages so much desired by seed-merchants, and so misleading to the public.

"In conclusion, I desire to add that it is far from my thoughts to imply that I have as yet learned all that I hope for on this very important and interesting subject; but I am firmly convinced that in deciding never to sow for permanent grass any but the purest seeds obtainable of the best permanent e I have taken an important step in the right direction. Could I have done this at the outset, I should have gained an incalculable amount of valuable time, and saved myself from the fruit! may say mischievous, expenditure of no inconsiderable amount of money."

Again, in the same Journal, Part 11., No. xxxvi., Mr. FaunceDe Laune contributes " Additional Remarks on laying down Land to Permanent Pasture; " from which the following extracts are taken :

"I have already urged the importance of obtaining each kind of seed separately, and of having eai b parcel o examined before sowing. I may add that, certain as mj experience had made me of this necessity, the communications I have received during the last three months have confirmed my opinion.

" Mixtures of grasses for permanent pasture.; have been brought before the notice of the Seed Committee of the Royal Agricultural Society, and examined by Mr. Carruth< rs, which had been purchased as containing the kinds and proportions of seeds recommended by me in the Society's Journal, and have been found to contain a large proportion of rye-grass, Yorkshire fog, and other worthless grasses.

"In my opinion landowners and farmers arc to blame in

111

U.ANI)

trusting to advertising firms without attempting themselves to acquire the knowledge requisite to enable them to discriminate between good and worthless seeds, or even to know, when the grasses come up, whether the seeds purchased were correct and of good quality. One result of this ignorance has been that some of the seed-merchants have not apparently been anxious to acquire a sufficient knowledge of the distinguishing characteristics of seeds and grasses, finding it more jjrofitable to sell indiscriminately good and worthless kinds and inferior qualities.

“ I have been much surprised to find that men who have spent the greater part of their lives in the seed-trade are practically unacquainted with many of its details. I have not met one seed-merchant who was able to show me the difference in the seed between rye-grass and meadow fescue. The difference may lx; very minute, hut, when once known, is quite clear.

verting to rye- rass, experience tins summer Lfirmed ray opinion as to the absolute necessity of .ils for permanent pasture. I do not wish to say that there may not b hie in rye-grass iot contai other grasses, although ! y ; but, on the contrary, I believe it lias been of much mischief: yet, as it is upheld by great autholit not contest the advisability of ordering lib. or 21b. per ac it not that if any, however 11 quantity, is ordered, it at once opens the door to plied in inordi mixed with other si at all be ordered, it would be easy, when the -rass comes up, to detect the quantity of rye-grass which may have been included bv the seed-merchant.

bservations lead me to believe that rye-grass is detrimental to the formation of a new pasture, not only because it is rt-lived grass, bur because, owing to the shortness of its . it exhausts the surface of the soil ; and, when it dies, the bare space left is so impoverished that, though grass-seeds may germinate upon it, they v. ill fail to live unless manured by accident or on purpose.

" I have watched with care the formation of any new pastures, and have come to the conclusion there are many agencies

112

GRASSES AND FOUAGE-PLAXTS

at work, and that it is a mistake to depend on any single agent.

"Allowing that this land is of fair quality, clean, and in moderate condition, and sown with seeds such as I have recommended, when first fed off with sheep it will be noticed that the plants are more or less detached, hut as the year advances they increase in size, and the clovers send out their creeping stems and gradually unite the grasses together.

" I farm upwards of nine hundred acres, in which there is very good land, moderate land, poor chalky banks, and gravel ; but no wet land. I have come to the conclusion, from my own experiments and the observations I have made in many parts of England, Scotland, and the Continent, that, in laying down to pasture on all lands, the selection should be made from the grasses I mentioned in my former article ; and that, as on a violin all tunes must be played upon the limited number of strings in that instrument, so in laying down land to grass all pastures ought to be formed of this limited number of grasses.

"I wish especially to impress on my readers that the result of my experiments thus far has been that T have laid down to permanent pasture, without encountering the period of deterioration which has hitherto been the universal experience of farmers; but that, instead, my meadows have gone on from year to year improving and increasing in their productiveness for breeding and fattening purposes."

Mr. Be Laune is not singular in Lis experiences of the difficulty of getting pure seed. There arc in this colony a number of agriculturists who could tell the same tale, particularly of the adulteration of meadow-fescue seed by means of perennial ryegrass seed. There is great difficulty in distinguishing by the naked eye, and even by the magnifying glass, the seed of one species from the other, and hence the case of the adulion. The illustrations appended at the end of this chapter will give a good idea of the characteristics of the different seeds as they appear under a magnifying glass. It is easy enough to distinguish such seeds as the meadow foxtail, yellow oat-grass, crested dog's-tail, cocksfoot, sheep's fescue, and Yorkshire E the naked eye, but not so easy to find distinguishing marks

USEFUL TO NKW ZEALAND.

11:;

between the seeds of meadow fescue and perennial rye-grass without the aid of a good microscope.

As ir may not he generally known, it is well to mention here that in this colony all kinds of agricultural seeds can be practically tested and reported on at the School of Agriculture, Lincoln, Canterbury, and that any persons wishing to have seeds municate with the Director of the institution on the sul

With o the best time for sowing permanent grasses, it was considered at one time that the spring was the most suitable, but the experi practical farmers of late years lias proved that it is best to sow grass-seed in the autumn, and by . as there is little doubt that it is, in most instances, an injury to both crops to sow grain and grass-seed together. The reason is obvii Irought of summer kills the seed, and, even if ill i seed does germinate, the young plants have a great ■i' existence, for grass will suffer more from drought than ■! : but grass-seed when sown in autumn at the lake sufficient growth to protect the roots from the frost: of winter, and in most eases furnish a fair bite latter end of spring to stock.

The artificial grasses of the leguminous order, such as the clovers, lucerne, and sainfoin, are, however, an exception to the above rule. They thrive best when sown in spring after the frosts have disappeared.

B—Pt. I.

GRASS SEEDS, MAGNIFIED.

Fiorin, Creeping Bent. MROSTIB BTOIORIFERA.

Yellow Ont-KrHSS. AVEKA FUVEBCENB.

CYWSURUB CMBTATUB.

ARRHEMATHERUK MENMEIM.

OACTYUB CLOMEMH

Vernal. ANTMOXANTHUM 000MTUM.

Meadow Foxtail. AIOKCURUB PMTUBIB.

FEBTUU PMTMBIB.

BRASS SEEDS, MAGNIFIED.

FE3TUCA EUTIOR.

Tu: PHUUM PMTEWE.

Sheep's Fescue. FEBTUC* WIN*.

Rough-stalked Meadow KM TWVUIUB.

Hard 1 FESTUCA DURIUBCUU.

Perennial Rye-grass. UHJUM PERENNt

Yorkshire Fog. HOUUB uuura

CHAPTER VIII

GENERAL TREATMENT OF GRASS-LANDS.

Ix New Zealand there are four kinds of land which arc Inglish grasses: firstly, bush-laud, which, after the id scrub have been felled and burnt, is surface-sown, erally with one or two kinds of grasses, such as cocksfoot and perennial rye-grass, and sometimes, in addition, timothy i white cl ondly, fern-land, which is burnt off, and sown in the same manner; thirdly, tussock-land, which is ten treated in the same way as the last; and, fourthly, the two latter respectively, which, instead of being surface-sown with gr are burnt, ploughed, and harrowed, and then - n broadcast with turnip- or rape-seed, which is harrowed in, 1 the produce thereof is eaten off on the ground by sheep or ration manures the land, and prepares it for the cultivation of grain-crops, of which successive ones are often taken, until the gradual diminution of production, from ropping, warns the farmer that the land should have rest. It is such land that is generally cultivated for permanent pasture, and in the preparation of it for the reception of seed it will amply repay the farmer first to subdivide it into suitable paddock plough it twice, the second time not more than six inches deep, and harrow it thrice, twice with a tine-harrow and thirdly with a disc-harrow; and, if requiring manure, such portable manures as guano, bonedust, superphosphate of lime, or air-slaked quicklime, should be harrowed in in the second harrowing. When the aould be at once covered in with a tripod- or a chain-harrow, or, if either is not available, with a bush-1 I e frame of which can be easily made by a handy man who knows how to use a saw- and hammer. After the latter harrowing the ground should be thoroughly rolled with a weighty iron or wooden roller, so as to cause early

AND FOBAGE-PL

116

germination of the seed, and again when the plants are showing about one inch above the ground, to promote their tillering.

When the plants attain a growth of four or five inches they should he lightly eaten down by either sheep or young cattle, and the stock removed to a fresh paddock. The first one should then be looked over, and any places which seem bare of grass plants should be harrowed with a tripod-harrow, and the same kinds of seed as first used sown over them, after which it should be harrowed again with a chain- or bush-harrow to cover the fresh seed, as well as to spread the sheep or cattle droppings. It should then be shut up until it reaches a second growtli of four or five inches, when stock can again be put on. This process should be systematically continued over the several paddocks in rotation for at least three years before they should be mown, if necessary to do so, for either hay or seed. In the two latter cases the aftermath, or second growth, should be only eaten down very lightly, and the same system of periodical rest pursued as already enjoined. No paddock, however, should be shut up for a hay or seed crop more than once in three years to avoid exhaustion. This should be easily managed by having a sufficient number of properly-fenced paddocks of size consistent with the extent of the farm and the quantity of stock it can profitably carry.

Many farmers may p ler the a dealing with grass-land too troublesome, overlooking the fact that the best grass-land will surely and rapidly d consequently become unprofitable, if not treated on rational principles. No grass-land should he eaten too bare, unl< is sometimes done, for the extermination of doeks or other vigorous weeds, when other remedies are not available ; but as soon as such plants are nibbled close enough—and they require several repetitions of that process to extirpate them — the stock should be removed, the bare grass well chain- or bush-harrowed, and then '-hut up for a time until its turn should come round l'-n- being again grazed. This mode, however, of getting rid of ould not I to it it can be Indued, as the youn. will suiter considerably from being too closely eaten down.

One great trouble with newly-laid-down grass-land particularly is the usurpation of weeds and use! r the proper grasses.

I L TO NEW ZEALAND.

117

growth in the pastures and other cultivated lands in New- Zealand of weeds, the seeds of which inally imported accidentally, renders their com•pation by no means an easy matter. That some weeds have in the economy of nature their uses —amongst othe precu in uncultivated lands—there is no doubt, and tiny not an unmixed evil : nevertheless up the room of plants of a more profitable character, and interfere considerably with the operations of the farmer, unless, from the on a continual war against them, which, in nun mpletelj neutralized by the weedi to his 1, lands of careless and indolent ) pains to adopt the same of extermi ! he does. The thistle, which radually dies out in r exhausting from the soil wherein it grows the e nutrition or being- choked out by the growth I and clovers with which the soil is in greater rith the thistle. Besides, when such plants have attaim sward the thistle-seeds that may fall on it do l-bed in which to germinate. The dock, with its great tap-root, is the worst to annihilate, and, H can be eaten down when young and gradually exterminated by crowding stock on the land which it affects, yet that reatment should not he tried too often, for the ren.

The common indigenous fern is likewise most diihcuit to , repeat:'!] burnings, as well as crowding ock on it to eat and also trample it down. The results of it practical investigations of certain eminent agricultural chemists have, however, proved that the real battle of the meadow with well as useless grasses—for instance, Yorksl '*) —» mst b e fought with manures. The systematic experiments which Sir John B. Lawes and his have carried on at Rothamsted Park " for more than ion on the same laud "* have demonstrated that " e be made of any character by manure

. ~T hn phi] a,] Society of London," Vol. 171 Lgncultural, imenta on the Mixed Herbage o£ Perma lows."

!S AND FOBAGE-PLANTS

212

alone," and that " to choke out weeds or non-nutritious grasses can be effected by the application of such manures as will not affect them except for destruction, but stimulate the good grasses to crowd them out."

Herein is an interesting field for the intelligent and oh ant agriculturist who has the capacity to acquire, and is endowed with the means and energy to apply, the knowledge he will gain by a study of the experiments referred to. With a fair practical knowledge of economic geology, botany, and agricultural chemistry he will be able to discern in a great measure the character of land from the herbage which grows thereon, and to judge therefrom what antidotes to use in the form of manures which will be destructive to weeds on the one hand while benefiting the grass, or any other crop which may be growing on the land, on the other.

As pertinent to the subject the following extract from the article on " Lime" in "Chambers's Encyclopaedia " will ex what a powerful factor the proper application of that mineral is in agricultural operations, and especially its efficacy in the prevention or eradication of weeds: "Lime has been used many centuries as a means of increasing the fertility of land. All crops require a certain amount, as is found by analysing the ash which remains after combustion. It is sometimes supplied, without previous preparation, in the form of marl and chalk ; hut in most cases it is first calcined, and reduced to ; der by slaking with water, or air-slaked by being mixed in the held with the soil. In Great Britain the quanti lime applied varies from three to eight tons to the acre. The smaller quantity may be sufficient for light land containing little vegetable matter, while the larger may he required for strongland, or for land holding much organic matter in an inert s 'l'lic large quantity of lime applied shows that its manurial is due more to its producing a certain ehemici on the land than to its affording nutriment to the crops. Lime proilc decomposition of all kinds of vegetable in: soil, and, further, it corrects any acidity in I and thus destroys those weeds, such as cape- or hawk-weed, sorrel, docks, and Fern, which are favoured by such a condition of tin' soil. It arrests tin- decomposition of certain • bases form the food of plants, and in this May il may he said, to digest or prepare their food. On certain ki.

I NI'AV 7.1 ■ '

119

grasses do not thrive until the land has been limed, and in these cases its use becomes all-important. Lime is the inly cure, too, that can be relied on for ' finger-and-toe ' in turnips, and its use im this, becoming more general." In addition to turnips, the following are crops specially requiring a liberal supply ol lime : Clover, peas, beaus, vetches, and sainfoin. On land that has been properly limed clover-sickness is said to be less known than where this old practice has been neglected. In New Zealand, when lime cannot be procured, either because of its non-existence as a production, or being too dear in price, or expensive to transport, or both, bone-dust or superphosphate of lime should be used, particularly the latter, as, independent of bcintr more economical, particularly from its portability, it is more quickly rendered effective by more rapid solubility than either lime or bone-dust.

Alter grass-land has been permanently established, the question is, how- to maintain its productiveness, while, at the same time, it is grazed by stock. The idea once prevalent that pasture-lands are enriched by the animals which feed on them is a fallacy. For instance, milch cows do not return the essential elements of the plants they feed on to the soil in so large a proportion to what they take from it as some other animals. ! elements are required in great quantities to form their milk, while in other animals they arc required for hone and muscle. The manure made by cows is, therefore, less valuable and fertilizing than that of some other animals. The consequence i- that lands fed wholly by cows arc exhausted sooner than those fed by other animals ; for it is evident that, where more is taken from the soil than is returned, exhaustion must follow.

Animal and vegetable matters are applied to the earth to supply it with substances which the growth of plants lias taken from it. The constituent parts of a plant are taken tip from the earth and the air, in somewhat the same manner as food and drink become, in beings or animals, hone and flesh. All applici r the improvement of the soil are nothing more than the supply of food for plants. For the food of plants is round in all manures, and the value of these depends upon the quantity they contain.

The methods of renovating meadow- and pasture-lands by means of top-dressings do not essentially differ. But the

120

ES AND FOBAOE-PLANTS

point to be observed is that, according to the nature of the soil, so should the top-dressing be of congenial materials; otherwise an application of a contrary kind might be inefficacious, if not detrimental. For instance, gravelly and sandy soils require mud and clay ; peat or bog mud, after being exposed to -mi, wind, or frost, to neutralize its acid properties, is a rich vegetable food, and, with a small proportion of potash or wood-ashes added, it is a valuable manure. Stiff clay soils, on the other hand, are benefited by applications in which sand, or marly light graved, predominates, which makes them lighter and more permeable, so that they become disintegrated by the aeration which ensues, and are thereby rendered more capable of supplying nutrition to plant-life than in their primitive state. Lime and sand, however, should never go together in top-dressing, as with the first lain thej would form a mortar. Neither should lime be applied to sandy soils for the same reason, besides being inapplicable as a manure. Lime acts best on peat and clay soils, and its addition to the compost-heap is of great value. It accelerates the decay of all vegetable substances ; but it should not be applied direct to decaying or fermenting animal substances, unless covered by a thick coating of peat or clay to act as an absorbent. Whenever lime is used in a compost, — unless it be for hastening the fermentation of vegetable substances, — it should be mixed witlr salt, by dissolving the salt first in water and slaking the lime with it. A bushel of salt will thus prepare four bushels of lime. Refuse brine will answer very well. Lime should not, however, be applied to farmyard manure without being first mixed with peat, muck, clay, or charcoal.

There are many other substances which are valuable ingredients in top-dressing mixtures for pasture-lands, of which the principal arc as follow : Gypsum, or sulphate of lime ; the nitrates of soda and potash ; superphosphate of lime made of ground bones mixed with sulphuric acid, or leached wood-ashes ; fish and seaweed, where lands contiguous to the sea afford the opportunity of catching the one and gathering the other, hut either, when caught or gathered, should be at once covered over with clay or peat to absorb and fix its chemical properties while in the state of fermentation that will ensue ; guano, which should be mixed with loam ; well-rotted dung; wood and all other ashes of a vegetable nature, al-o charcoal and eoalashes.

I i, TO NEW ZEALAND.

121

In forming a compost-heap Eor top-dressing purposes the lower layer should lie of loam or mud, and every suitable thing callable of Eermentation should be added to it, particularly bones, refuse of slaughterhouses, dead animals, and farmyard dung, over each layer of which a mixture of lime and clay, mud, or peat, should be thickly spread, but, if lime is not easily available, then plenty of tin' latter substances, a- absorbents. Weeds, leaves, useless grasses, moss, straw, vegetable and potato stalks, rushes, and other re use substances of like nature should be formed into heaps, and covered in with clay or muck, then burned, and the ashes added to the compost-heap.

Si:i ition where practicable is also a valuable means of improving grass-lands, but it is not so simple as many would suppose. It requires skill in first laying il out on a proper system so as to utilize the supply effectively, as well as practice in the regulation of its application according to the nature of the land itisii fertilize; otherwise the experiment may be a failure.

Proper drainage is likewise an important factor in the improvement of meadow- and pasture-lands, particularly of low wet lands : it increases their temperature several degrees, and admits the air to circulate more freely around the roots of the plants. The useless aquatic grasses and rushes which require larj constant suppli oisture will cease to grow, and the soil aged and improved will admit of more valuable iltivated.

CHAPTER IX

THE GRASS-SEED INDUSTRY.

The statistics of the colony show that in the years 1883, 1881, and 1885 the total imports and exports of grass-seeds were as follow :—

Imports.

Bushels. Value.

Year 1883 ... ... 34,598 £49,628

„ 1884 ... ... 47,450 70,993

„ 1885 ... ... 89,462 91,915

Exports.

Bushels. Value.

Year 1883 ... ... 113,917 .€34,057

„ 1884 ... ... 191,540 39,871

„ 1885 ... ... 160,102 32,516

Although it docs not follow from the above figures that the diminution in the exports of 1885 is a sign of diminished production, —for the contrary is the case, and it is only what is the surplus after providing for local requirements that can be available for export, —yet the returns of exports plainly show that, at any rate, the importation of grass- and clover-seeds is largely on the increase. Now, there is no reason why the same descriptions of seeds so imported, or any other agricultural seeds, should not be grown within the colony, and even to spare for exportation, the same as cocksfoot, ryegrass, and tall fescue, which form the bulk of the seed exports. The following article on " Agricultural Seeds,'' in the Canterbury Times of the :20th November, 1885, puts the matter very clearly anil forcibly :

“ Agricultural Seeds.

“ As a general tiling we do not think that the farmers of this country are open to the reproach of indifference or carelessness in the purchase and selection of agricultural seeds. A good

123

OKASE 1-PIiANTS CSEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

many short-sighted ones there are, no doubt, who think that it saves money to buy cheap and inferior seeds, although, perhaps, in cases in which this mistake is made it more frequently arises from the want of cash than from any lack of knowledge of what is likely to pay best in the long-run. The nature and condition of the soil arc. of course, the primary conditions in the production of a crop of any kind; but next to this comes the consideration 1. The leading agricultural societies at Home have done much during the past \\-\\ years in the way of protecting Farmers from the tricks of the wily seedsman. In most trades there is probably a certain latitude of conscience allowed, but the tricks of the seel trade as practised by its less scrupulous representatives were found to be especially numerous, and so ingenious as to evade without difficulty the operation of the Seeds Adulteration Act. The practice established, however, by the Royal and other leading agricultural societies of insisting upon purity and a certain percentage of germination of the seeds, the le to be guaranteed and subject to the examination of a disinterested expert, litis done much more for the farmer than any special legislation upon the subject. The samples submitted for inspection to the botanist of the Royal Agricultural Society of England have shown a marked improvement in quality since the guarantee system was started.

" The great bulk of the imported seeds used in this colony are obtained i'rom (inns of seedsmen of the highest standing, and are ,i good quality. The agricultural interest Uy owes much to the skill and enterprise of the leadlon at Home, such as Sutton, Carter, "Webb, and others. Most of the improved sorts of cereals, grasses, and due to the skill of the seedsmen. We have lately ivith an account of the seed-farms of Messrs. Webb and farms include an area of 1,000 acres, and, according to the accounl we have read, are 'not only a huge id for producing the best From the best among the Is which have been brought to such perfection by and Sons, but the scene of seed-raising on a large for trade purposes.' 'Turn where we will.' the writer goes on to say, ' admiration cannot weary among the grain, ;... for the farm and the thousand, of a products with which the laud is dotted over in a persisattempt to perfeel our v; ps, and establish new and

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I 38ES AND FOBAGE-ELANTS

improved varieties. The rows, plots, and beds in endless succession enable the firm to test their own products, and they are their own severest critics.' The 1,000 acres of which Messrs. Webb and Sons' seed-farms consist are, however, quite inadequate to supply the wants of their customers, and the firm employs a total of not less than 15,000 acres in different parts of the country for raising seeds from their own ' - arrangements being made with farmers for the production being carried out under the most stringent conditions. Periodical inspection is made by trusted servants of the firm, and every precaution is taken to insure the purity and good quality of the seeds. Other leading firms of seedsmen, such as those whose names we have already mentioned, also conduct their operations on an immense scale, and with equal skill and care in regard to the purity of seeds and the improvement of varieties. I'-. dealing direct with these great firms may depend upon getting what they order and pay for; but it is the host of smaller dealers scattered through the country who have been in the habit of practising upon the farmers, and especially upon those of the ' penny-wise and pound-foolish' sort.

" In this colony we annually import an immense quantity of agricultural seeds. As we have already said, most of these seeds come from the best firms, and therefore we have the satisfaction of knowing that, though the drain in money upon the country is considerable, it is spent in quarters where it is likely to secure the best value. It has become well known among English exporting firms that the colonies generally refuse to accept cheap rubbish, and that a market for inferior seeds is more easily found at Home than among colonial purchasers. It is a question of some importance, however, whether, in a country like this, we should not be in a position to produce the bulk of the seeds we use. Ryegrass and cocksfoot arc the only massseeds quoted in our markets. All other grass-seeds, clover, and turnip seeds are imported, and yei we have all that is v. anted in the way of climate and soil for the production of such agricultural seeds as we require. This surely is a local industry well worthy of attention. The production of agricultural seeds of good quality, though involving much skill and patient attention, is not an industry requiring an abundant supply of the cheapest labour. We arc at no disadvantage in respect < and climate; technical knowledge may be acquired, or, il'ueces-

125

NEW zr.Ai.

sary, i ;: ' this being tli il does seem thai the fact of so much money going out of the country every year in the purchase of seeds in rihuted chiefly to want of enterprise, and to a characteristic tardiness in utilizing the the country. Colonial seed-producers would be protected against i by much more than distance and es half round the globe, Tor th are many kinds of seeds which suffer on the voyage. r r. of some artificial ir instance, have a low germinating irer under the ircumstances, and the uncertainty of growth is much increased by the influeD t-air ami other conditions involved in transport. The leading K Hsii have brought their business to so much perfection that it will probably be long before the colony will be able to dispense with their assistance; bul thai we should not be so lav_ adent on them as we arc at present is a matter that admits of no question. A new country begins of i by importing many commodities which requin skill in production of them, and continues to import them From force of custom 1 i they should be included in the list of colonial industrii

CHAPTER X

PARASITES AND PESTS OF THE GRASSES.

As there is a great lack of information on the parasitic plants and insect-pests that infest our pastures and forage-plants—-which often, particularly the former, find their way there through the medium of the seed—the following description of a few of the worst of these enemies to agriculture should . an interesting and useful study to the practical farmer.

" Parasite " —in botany—is a plant which lives on another. There arc certain plants which arc without the means of providing nutriment for themselves, or of elaborating the crude sap into proper juice, but obtain thei ' hment immedi from the plants to which they attach themselves, ant] who e juices they absorb. Such plants . Of this species there are two especially, dodder and broom-rape, ■ attack the clovers. There is also another par. . it —a fungus which grows on the ovary of rye-grass, cocksfoot, tall fescue, and rye-corn, as well as on some of the indig of New Zealand, such as the toetoe-grass and the oat--: particularly D ■ iris.

127

LND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

Clover Dodder (Cuscuta trifolii).

Fig. 41.

This is a most destructive parasitical plant, the seeds of which are very difficult to detect, being so small and of an earthy-brown colour, resembling minute pieces of soil.

In season 1877-78 the seed-testing station in Switzerland found that K! per cent, of the samples of red-clover seed submitted to them contained more or less of dodder. It is the most terrible enemy of the clover-plant. It is sown with the seed, and develops simultaneously; it winds its hair-like stems round the plant, and fixes itself on to it by means of suckers, which extract the sap from the plant. The roots, which the dodder possesses in the early stages of its growth, wither after awhile, and then the parasite is altogether dependent on the sap it draws from the clover-plant, in consequence of which the latter wastes and perishes. In appearance it resembles a number o! fleshy threads twisted round a branch. It is like a large mass of yellow horse-hair -hooting up through the clover and tself round every stalk of it. It commences in small patches all over the field, and gradually extends itself, destroying in its progress all vegetation, and leaving the whole area as black as if a fire had existed on the spot.

As the seed of dodder is, with the exception of white-clover , not much more than half the size of any other clover seed, it is easy to get rid of it by sifting.

When dodder appears, the only remedy is to dig up and for a considerable space around the spots where it appeared, and then to hum all the clover and dodder plants along with the soil. If it is allowed to mature and shed its seeds it may lie dormant in the soil for many yi

Clover dodder lias unfortunately found its way to New Zealand, and lias established itself in the Waikato district, Auckland, and also in Canterbury. There is besides an indigenous parasite of a similar character, which has been found in Takaka district, Nelson.

223

Clover Dodder. CUSCUTA TBIFOLII.

L 29

GRASSES AN'D FORAGE-PLANTS I'SElT'l. TO N'l'.W ZEALAND

Lesser and Greater Broom-rape

Orobanche minor and Orobanche elatior.)

Pig. 42.

These also attack clover, attaching themselves to the roots of the seedling clover, and drawing nourishment therefrom. The tall broom-rape sometimes has a stem as much as an inch and a half thick and a loot and a half high, and looks as much out of place growing on the clover stump as docs the young cuckoo in the hedge-sparrow's nest. The qualities of this parasitic plant are powerfully astringent. When it has once established itself it can only be removed by hand-picking.

The broom-rape has also been found in the neighbourhood of Auckland, but it lias not been observed to attach itself particularly to clover-plants : its special affinity in that district is the dandelion-plant.

9—Pt. I.

Fig. *2

Lesser Broom Rape.

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS OSEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

131

Ergot and Ergotism

Fig. 43.

Ergot has been described as a monstrous condition of the grain, in which the enlarged and diseased ovary protrudes from the floret in a curved form, resembling a cock's spur hence the name "ergot"—from the French —-meaning a spur). This spur is of a blackish-brown shade outside, while internally it is whitish, and contains much oil. In this condition it is taken by animals in grass and hay; causing, when taken in sufficient quantities, abortion of in-calf cows that have arrived at a certain stage of pregnancy, and disease of a more or less acute character in other animals.

Ergot-spurs ripen with the grasses in the autumn and. Calling to the ground, remain there during winter and spring—unchanged and unaffected by frost or rain. About the beginning of summer the ergot commences to develop minute fungi, which ripen in about five or six weeks, and discharge spores in every direction. Such of the spores as alight on the grasses when in (lower attach themselves to the seed-ease, cast the embryo seed from its position, and commence at once to grow as parasites. When ergot reaches its full growth in autumn it lias a second stage of reproductiveness, giving off spores from its tip or snout in greater numbers than those which were developed from the fungi. Misty, foggy weather and light rains the propagation of the spores, but heavy rains are apt to wash them away. Dry, hilly pastures —without trees or hedges to prevent free currents of air arc not favourable to the growth of this parasite. In medicine, ergot is employed in modern practice to stimulate the motor nerve-centres which are connected with the womb, in order to cause active contraction when that organ has lost its muscular force. In large doses ergot is an acrid poison, causing dulness, vertigo, dilated pupils, intoxication, muscular tremblings, and tetanic spasm, especially in the hind-extremities, which afterwards become paralysed. Dry gangrene is a final result of the action of the poison ; and by degrees the extremities, and even portions of the trunk, are. rotted and fall off.

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132

" Ergot," says Mr. "Walker, in his book on " The Cow and Calf," "taken in such quantities as it is found in our grasses, acts as an excitant upon the womb of the pregnant cow, whereby the parts contract, and give the animal a desire to abort the calf. Its malignant influences are little dreamt of by the majority of graziers. Thousands of cows annually abort during wet seasons from eating the ergot grains among the grass and fodder. It is no imaginary evil, but has been proved by direct experiments instituted by men of undoubted veracity. It has been given to the mare, the cow, the ewe, and the eat, and has never failed to cause untimely birth when given in proper quantities, and when the animal had arrived at a certain stage of pregnancy."

] n many cases it has been noticed that when a cow aborts in a herd many others follow suit. This is commonly ascribed to some infection or sympathy; but it is quite clear that many cases assigned to sympathy arc really caused by the poisonous ergot. A case is mentioned in the Field where ergotism appeared amongst eighteen cows in a dairy. The animals' legs began to swell as high as the hock-joint, and in about a week the hoofs began to slough off. Some cases assumed a more severe form. The appetite failed, scab formed from the top of the hoof to above the fetlocks, and the parts below the line of the scab rotted off.

This subject is worthy of the most serious attention, for losses, one year with another, from abortion and other animal ailments incurred by ergot may be estimated at as much as is caused bv foot-and-mouth disease.

Treatment of ergotism, as a matter of course, includes the removal of the animals from the place where ergot is found, or, in the case of ergotised fodder having been supplied, a change at once. Medical treatment, including the use of antiseptics and restoratives, will prove in some instances beneficial ; but it is obvious that in this disease prevention is Ear more important than cure, and what is wanted is a determined effort to stamp out the pest. Meadow grasses should be cut before the period when the ergot-spurs develop on the flower-head. Special attention should be paid to the corners of fields, to places under the shade of trees, and to the banks of streams and ditches. It is in such situations, where coarse grasses grow, that ergot is mosl likely to be found, and care should be taken to cut down such grasses in good time to prevent the pest being propagated.

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To destroy ergot the best course to pursue is to cut and collect the ergoted grasses and burn them; taking care that they arc shaken and tossed about as little as possible, as the grains of ergot have only a slight held on the seed-stalk, therefore arceasily detached, and if allowed to drop off and remain on laud eaeli grain will serve as a centre for the propagation of the pest at a future time.

Fig. 48.

Head and Spike of Grasses showing Spurs of Ergot.

QBASSBS AND FOBAGE-PLANTB USEFUL TO Xi:\\ ZEALAND.

L 35

Insect-pests op the Grasses

Pig. 44.

Of these the only one of a specially destructive character is the cockchafer {Melolontha vulgaris), a beetle of the family of Lamellicornes and section Phyllophagi (leaf-eaters). The cockchafer is fully an inch in length, of a pitchy-black colour, with a whitish down, giving a sort of powdered appearance ; the sides of the abdomen marked by a range of triangular spots, the abdomen terminating in a point; the antennae short, terminating in a club formed of six or seven leaflets ; the grub is about an inch and a half long, thick, whitish, with a red head and six legs. The cockchafer docs not live long after it has passed into its perfect stale, but it lives uearly Four years in the grub or Larva state. The female cockchafer deposit- her rtli. The whole grass of a field has often been destroyed in a short time by these grubs, and the beetles themselves strip off the foliage of trees like locusts. Rooks and other birds render great service by preventing the excessive multiplication of cockchafers ; but it is a difficult matter to destroy the grub, from the depth (four incites) in which the insect deposits her eggs in the earth.

•14.

Cockchafer. MELOLONTHA VULGARIS,

CHAPTER XI.

SILOS AND SILAGE.

These subjects, which have so largely engaged the attention of advanced agriculturists and agricultural chemists in Great Britain for some years, although somewhat beyond the original scope of this manual, arc intimately connected witli its object ; and, from the increasing interest which is taken in them in the colony, the following information, composed of extracts from a work lately published, entitled "The Construction of Silos,"* will prove useful to those who may be desirous of adopting the process :

" "What is a silo, and what is silage ?

" These are questions which may puzzle the majority of persons unconnected with agriculture, and a few years since would have la en unsolved enigmas to most agriculturists as well. Of late, however, silage has been much talked of and written about —praised on the one hand and condemned on the other. The very nam.es 'silos' and ' silciro ' have an air of mystery about them, their origin exciting the curiosity of painstaking inquirers. Like most matters which have not previously keen heard of or read about, we are told that silage is hut an illustration of the old saying, 'There is nothing new under the sun,' for is it not written in Jeremiah, ' Slay not, for we have treasures in the field of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey '?

" But the reply to the questions, 'What is a silo, and what is silage?' may be summed up in a few words. A silo is a receptacle in which green crops, Bucb as grass, clover, or vetches, are d< posit( <l as soon as cut, and preserved in a succulent state by means of compression, for use as cattle-food in winter; and

•"The Construction of Silos, and thi I Green Crops for Silage." By Thomas Potter, author of "I . its Use for Building." London: B. T. Batsford, 52 High Holborn. 1886.

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silage is the name given the material—no matter its original designation—appropriated to this purpose.

“ The object of compression by weighting is to exclude—as much as possible—the atmosphere; and the theory set up is that the small amount of air capable of permeating the materials, containing a relative proportion of oxygen —the exciting agent in producing fermentation—has the power only of producing a ferment of so innocuous a character that the original nutritive and succulent character of the green crop is practically unaffected, no matter how long it may remain unused, conditionally, however, that the heavy pressure is maintained during the interval—that is to say, that the weight, or pressure, whatever it may be, is not removed from the time the crop is deposited in the silo till it is required for consumption.

“We gather from chemists like Dr. Yoelcker that the silage itself may pass through various degrees or stages of fermentation ; that when in the conditions of ferment which produce first lactic, then alcoholic, and subsequently acetic acid, the silage is in its best condition for cattle-food ; hut if it passes these stages, and putrescent fermentation sets in, it may possibly bring about injurious results to the stock which consume it, assuming it has not reached that stage of putrescence when cattle will altogether refuse it.

"The object aimed at, therefore, is how to produce silage in its best form of having undergone a process of fermentation. which is arrested when the aectic-aeid stage is reached, or for sweet silage before arriving at that stage, and what arc the means most likely to bring about the desirable result. A fairly air-tight and completely water-tight silo has been usually considered the first essential, and a certain amount of pressure an absolute necessity; but how much pressure is required, how best to produce that pressure, or even when to apply it, are questions which have given rise to many conflicting opinions."

There are numerous descriptions and sixty-two illustrations of different kinds of silos given in the hook ; but the simplest and most applicable form of silo for this country is described in Chapter XI. :

“ Silage-stacks and Means op Compression.

“ The sequel to the introduction of silos and silage into this country has been the adoption, to some considerable extent, of

139

l SEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

silage-stacks, which differ in no material way from their prototype — an ordinary haystack —except that the inevitable pressure is bound to be obtained in some form or other. The simplicity with which the green crop can be weighted in a silo with any kind of heavy materials that are nearest to hand, is not attainable when it is simply stacked ; one portion may settle more than another, or the weights apparently have more effect on one side than on the opposite side, and the wind may be in the wrong direction to assist in counteracting this disposition, and so altogether it may happen that the weights will slide off, and the -tack itself be disposed to heel over.

"Mr. Johnson, of Oakwood Croft, Darlinglon, who was about one of the first in this country to practise making silage by mechanical pressure, was also one of the first to experiment with silage-stacks, and, as usual with pioneers in new undertakings, met with variable success and some difficulties. Mr. Johnson give- his experience thus : ' 1 began making silagestacks in 1884, and in that year put up three for myself and one for a friend. The first of the three was intended to have pressed by mechanical pressure, but the mechanism failed, and the fodder had to be saved by using stones as dead weights ; the second -tack, which was fifteen feet square and contained about seventy tons, was also weighted by stones on a covering of boards, then straw laid on the stones, and afterwards the stack thatched in the usual way. Unfortunately it took to heeling over, and many of the stones rolled off, the stack itself nearly going over through the force of the wind, which caused unequal settling; bui the silage turned out well, although I could clearly foresee that without mechanical pressure in some shape or other it would be impossible to build a stack high enough—without considerable risk of its tumbling down —to make the game worth the candle. Moreover, the stack must inevitably finish with a fiat top for the purpose of accommodating the (lead weights, and have to be made up with straw, and thatched so a- to allow the water to run oil, all of which is troublesome and costly. So I set to work to scheme some system of mechanical pressure that might permit a rounded or pointed top being made (with the ultimate result as hereafter described,!, and myself and others have found that, with proper moans at disposal'for weighting, silage-stacks are a decided success.'

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GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS

"In 1885 Mr. Johnson put up a stack of one hundred and thirty tons of first-crop winter-sown tares and meadow-grass, and this gained the prize offered by the Royal Agricultural Society for silage-stacks. Mr. Johnson's experience will no doubt fairly represent that of others. The main difficulty is keeping the stack from heeling over", unless the weight or system of pressure which may be adopted is controlled, and, as will be seen, in all but one of the appliances hitherto adopted this control is gained by literally tying the stack to the ground, or to the wood base or platform upon which it is laid. Practically, therefore, the disputation with regard to dead weights and mechanical pressure, which has troubled the minds of those who intended making silage in a silo, does not enter into the question when stacked; but mechanical pressure appears to be all but absolutely necessary, except the stack be very small and low in proportion.

" As might be expected, there are many who look upon silagestacks as the best system to adopt, while others maintain that a properly-constructed silo prevents all the difficulties pertaining to stacking. The advocates of the latter system say that as keeping air out of the green crop is the prime factor in making good silage—and which is all but generally acknowledged—it is self-evident that, let the pressure be never so effective, a certain amount of waste to all exposed sides of a silage-stack is inevitable, and to this assertion there is practically no denial, but which those who are in favour of stacks maintain is much less in value than the interest would amount to on the capital expenditure in building a silo. Here, however, much depends upon circumstances, for, assuming the waste to be six inches all round a stack measuring ten feet each way (Mr. Johnson puts it at six to nine inches), there would lie nineteen cubic feet of waste on every foot in height of the stack, the contents being one hundred cubic feet for every foot m height, or nearly 20 per cent, of loss, whereas in a stack measuring twenty feet each way, willi the same depth of waste all round isix inches), the loss would be only S\ per cent.

"Mr. Blunt, of Blaby Hill. Leicester, gives the waste on silage-stacks, the result of his own experience, as fellows: — No. 1 stack, eighteen feet long by sixteen feet wide: average waste at sides, six inches; taking the weight of the outside at one-half of that of the hulk, the proportion of loss was 6 per

USEFUL TO NKW ZEALAND.

141

cent. No. 2 stack, a round one, sixteen feet in diameter; average waste at sides, nine inches; proportion of loss, '.)\ per cent. No. 3 stack, a round one ten feet in diameter; average waste at sides, three inches; proportion of loss, 5 per cent. With these data Mr. Blunt calculates 5 per cent, as the average loss o silage when stacked. To lessen the waste, the outsides of stacks have in some instances been treated with a dressing of salt and other preservatives.

" The formula of Mr. Hunt, of Brentry Farm, Westbury-on-Trym, is as follows : l~ewt. salt, 56 pounds fenugreek, .'Hcwt. raw sugar, mixed so as to form a paste capable of beingapplied with a brush ; but it is necessary to say that this prescription has been patented, and can therefore only be applied by permission of Mr. Hunt, or the composition obtained from him. A mixture somewhat similar is also supplied by Mr. Tucker, of Banbury.

“ In favour of stacking there is a further set-off in the value of the outsides as a rough bedding material for live stock, and in the fact that, owing to the outsides being at the extreme edge of the pressing arrangements, the percentage of loss by weight would be much less (Mr. Blunt, as will he seen, puts it at onehalf) than the percentage of loss by hulk if weight was the factor in the calculation. There is the question also of the top of the stack being exposed to the elements. By Mr. Johnson’s system of making it a span-roof shape, similar to a haystack, it is asserted the materials get consolidated sufficiently to turn off the rain without injuring the silage during construction, and on completion the stack is thatched over the wire ropes in the same way as an ordinary haystack. Where other systems of compression, necessitating a flat top, are practised, it is usual to place a layer of roofing-felt or Willesden paper beneath the cover platform, or (more costly but more effectual) corrugated galvanized sheets laid over the platform, giving them a slight tilt to turn off the water, and depositing some weighty material thereon to prevent the wind from carrying them away.

“ Mr. Blunt recommends the placing some waste dry litter on the platform, bringing it up to a peak shape, and thatching the stack in the ordinary way ; the item of thatching, however, is one which, when the stack is made in the open, is against stacking and in favour of silos, for we get a direct expenditure that would—adding together the value of straw and labour make a

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serious hole in the annual interest on capital outlay upon a silo capable of holding the silage-stack ; probably the increased value of straw which -will inevitably follow a decreasing area of corn crops, w ill lead to the necessity of adopting galvanized iron as a roofing material for both hay- and silage-stacks. But the advantages of siiage-stacks over silos will be judged from Other standpoints than the one only of comparative cost. On outlying portions of large farms, and rough land, where it would be injudicious to erect a silo, but where silage could be occasionally made and consumed, it would probably be sound policy to make a stack in preference to building a silo; or, as was instanced in the Field, ' a farmer may have a crop of grass cut with the intention of making it into hay, but wet weather intervenes and prevents his carrying out this intention. He may possess no silo, or his silos may be full, and if the grass lies on the ground many days its value will be very greatly deteriorated, if not rendered practically worthless. He cannot construct a silo at an hour's notice, but he may build a stack of wet grass instead of dry hay, and the very wetness would enable him to dispense with weights or apparatus to a greater extent than he otherwise could do.' Silage made under a roof and between enclosing walls appears to be the most convenient and handiest in a general way for small and medium-size holdings, and where the silage is always consumed at the farmstead ; but time and experience with regard to both systems, to enable their advantages and disadvantages to be put in the scales, is absolutely necessary; and this must be done by unprejudiced practitioners, under equal conditions, with the same kind of green crops, and the results carefully noted. A cry man}- decided expressions of opinion as to the relative merits of silos and stacks are given by persons who have only adopted one or other; and so with compressive appliances : witnesses have intimated that dead weights are the best system of compression, or vice versd, and when questioned affirmed they had tried no alternative method. Undoubtedly the opinion of Johnson, of Croft, who has for several years given both stacks and silos an impartial trial, and now pronounces in favour of the former, must carry great weight. The main factors upon which Mr. Johnson base- his decision are these :

“1. The first cost is less.

" 2. It is easier to make sweet silage in stacks than in silos,

. I, 'l'll NI'.W ZEALAND.

143

lor it has been found, as a rule, that if the crop is cut while still succulent (not at all over-ripe), as much stacked each day as can be conveniently carried, the pressure applied each night, and the stacking continued each day without intermission, just tin' right degree of heat is readied which makes the best sweet silage, and without the need of any thermometer or the exercise of any special skill or judgment. With silos the filling must he delayed by intervals of one or more days to allow the heat to rise, and this is both troublesome and uncertain.

'■ .",. Stacks are more elastic as to quantity than silos, as the size of the crop may be suited by varying the width of the stack, and there is, comparatively speaking, no restriction as to height.

" 4. The stack-press gear is portable, so that the crop may lie stacked in whatever field it is grown, or at the place where it is intended it shall be consumed* It is usually affirmed by advocates for stacks, and accepted without protest by advocates for silos, that there must always be from 2 to 5 per cent, waste of silage when made in a silo, arising from contact with the walls ; but, as before stated, if the walls arc dry and fairly waterproof, which newly-built siios cannot be any more than newly-built houses till time is allowed for the water used in construction to exude, it would appear difficult to discover the reason for any waste whatever. There are many persons who have found no waste in their silos, and if the latter arc seasoned there would probably never he any, assuming, of course, that proper care was exercised in other respects. And if early spring and late autumn crops were ensiled, an arrangement which has of late been advocated, to enable silos to do double duty, this will be a point in their favour, as they would not he out of use during the summer months, as many are at present.

" Mr. E. T. Blunt gives, as the result of considerable experience in making silage-stacks, the following information in connection therewith :

'■First, to estimate a crop for silage. A crop of grass or clover sufficient to make one ton of hay will yield four to five tons of silage. Stacks may be built of various shapes and (sizes; one twenty feet long and fifteen feet wide is a very convenient size, and will contain six tons of silage for every foot in height.t A sound and level piece of ground should be

t Fifty pounds per cubic foot would show seven tons of silage nearly for every foot in height.

• Several of the silo compressive arrangements are also portable.

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BRASSES AND FOBAGE-PLANTS

chosen to build the stack upon ; and if in such a position that the carts can be drawn up on both sides for unloading so much the better; and no artificial bottom should be used. It is of the utmost importance that tin; sides should be kept considerably higher than the middle, the sides trampled as much, and the middle as little, as possible ; if this is done, there will not lie much danger of the sides slipping or bulging; but, till the men get used to building the stack, or at any time during the stacking, it can be prevented by placing a few boards upright at intervals of four or five feet round the stack, and binding them with a wagon-rope for a few days. Should it be found, when the weight is applied, that the sides are sinking more than the middle, it will be better to at once remove the covering-boards, and raise the sides by silage taken from the middle ; otherwise there would be a large proportion of waste or damaged silage at the sides.

"To make sour silage, the crop should be in a succulent or even wet state, and the staid; built up as quickly and pressed as soon as possible.

"To make sweet silage, the crop should not he in too succulent a condition, and the stack should he built up slowly, not more than five or six feet in a day ; and should it he found convenient to miss two or three days between one stacking and another, no damage will be caused to the silage ; but not more than four days should elapse between each stacking, unless the pressure is applied, and this can be removed and replaced if it is desired to add to the stack at tiny time afterwards. Before putting the pressure on. it should be seen that the sides of the stack tire level all round and Fairly solid, and from one to two feet higher than the middle. When the stack is not under a hay-barn or other permanent roof, it must be protected while being built from heavy rain by a temporary covering, such as a rick-sheet, &c. After the hist stacking, and the pressure is properly performed, a roof may be made of straw, and thatched in the ordinary way.

"Grasses and clovers cannot wel] be cut too young, and may be stacked at any time or in any weather : but tare- or vetches, and similar succulent crops, must not be stacked wet. These latter should certainly lie made into sweet silage, and, to insure this, should not he cut til! they are in pod.

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" Fin'. 1.1 is a side and end elevation of a stack under conipression bj Mr. Johnson's system ; Fig. KS is a sketch to a ■ scale of a crutch and cross-head to which the ratchet and lacing-ropes are attached ; and Fig. 17 is a perspective view of tack which gained the prize of f2'i offered by the Royal Agricultural Society in 1885.

"' The method of obtaining pressure is this : A flexible gal-vanized-wire rope, having a loop at one end, is looped on to a crutch ar one end of one of the cross-heads, which move loosely up and down on ratchet-bars made fast to logs of wood, held down by the weight of the stack resting upon them. The wire rope is then passed over the top of the stack and hitched on to a corresponding crutch at the other side, and, returning at short intervals, is laced over the whole series of crutches on all the -heads in one continuous length of rope, and is then made fast by bitching it round the last crutch, thus forming a wirerope saddle over the stack. The cross-heads are then tightened down by working the lever, which has pivoted on its end a pawl, which engages with the teeth of the ratchet-bar. Another pawl bed to the cross-head also engages with the teeth of the ratchet-bar, and so holds good the cross-head in the position it has reached until the next stroke of the lever and pawl presses it down another tooth on the ratchet-bar. The wire-rope saddle is thus drawn down until the stack has been sufficiently pressed. The reel shown at the side of the stack is not for tightening, but merely for winding the rope on.

" The length of leverage is adjusted so that eery stroke of the lever moves the cross-head down three-quarters of an inch, and a man pressing witli a force equal to 1121b. puts a strain of three tons on each cross-head, and therefore a stack sixteen feet wide has a pressure of :2001b. per square foot.

" Thi ood to which the ratchet-bars are fastened maybe round, flat, or square, and should bo not less than eight inches in diameter, and placed four feet apart from centre to centre. A rough plank, hurdle, or timber bottom, such as usually forms the base for a haystack, should be placed across the logs to ' the mass. A platform of boards, placed on a pair of tressels about thirteen feel in height from the ground, is desirable, so that after the stack has attained a certain height the grass may be forked from the cart on to the platform, and thence on to the stack : this provision enables

10—Pt. I

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the stack to he carried twenty-two or twenty-three feet high to the eaves before settling.

"The following is the list of prices for Mr. Johnson's appliances :

& s. d.

“ 30-ton stacks, lift, square by lift, high to the eaves when settled, including 3 pairs of cross-heads, with ratchet-bars and ring-bolt to attach to timber, 1 lever and pawl, wire-rope and reel to wind it on ... 12 0 0

75-ton stacks, loft, square by loft, high to the eaves when settled, including 4 pairs of cross-heads, with ratchet-bars and ring-bolt to attach to timber, 2 I< . and pawls, wire-rope and reel to wind it on ... 15 0 0

100-ton stacks, 19ft. long by 16ft. wide by 15ft. high to the eaves, including 5 pairs of cross-heads, with ratchet-bar and ring-bolt to attach to timber, 2.1 c and pawls, wire-rope and reel to wind it on ... 18 0 0

For larger stacks the length may be increased, but not the width ; otherwise the pressure will be reduced. Each extra pair of cross-heads, with ratchet-bar and ring-bolt, and requisite extra length of wire-rope, giving 4ft. extra length of stack and 20 tons additional ensilage ... ... ... ... ... 3 10 0

(These prices are for net cash on rail at Darlington.)

" It becomes a question as to what Mr. Johnson's patent covers in connection with this system, audit is therefore as well to add that the claim is, 'The sole right to use ropes, or other flexible hands, with or without the interposition of longitudinal poles or bars, over the rounded or peaked top of silage-stacks. with the object of obtaining pressure.' Some patentees and practitioners recommend the paring of the sides of the stacks, and throwing the cuttings on the top so as not to waste any portion of the green crop. Mr. Johnson recommends raking the sides and ends as the stack is being built.

" It is advisable to prop the stack occasionally, in case the heat generated by the green crop may give it a tendency to heel before the pressure can he applied.

" But besides the systems described for producing mechanical pressure, both for silos and silage-stacks, several others have been tried, and more, no doubt, will eventually be introduced and represented as the best hitherto devised. The ' survival of the fittest/ in this as in other things, will reduce the number in common use to a minimum, and the simplest and best remain

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at last free from that endless competition which a new want seems to bring about. Whether lever-pressure, or the application of screws, which appear to be the primary means of successful compression, either pure and simple, or in combination with cog-wheels, winches, springs, and other mechanical auxiliaries, will come to the front, cannot at present be decided ; and until the best-known systems are tried in fair and open competition, and judged upon their merits, it would be invidious to proclaim this, that, or the other arrangement as the only reliable compressive appliances. Advocates for different methods of compression will eventually come to recognize the advantages by certain systems over others, and the least popular will have to give May in favour of those which have stood the test without failure, and assisted in producing the most satisfactory results with the least trouble and cost. If the success attending the introduction of silage as a cattle-food makes the same progress in public favour during the next three years that it has done during the past three years, and silos, silage-stacks, and mechanical compressive appliances for producing silage come into general use, we shall before long undoubtedly have solved some of the knotty points in connection with these subjects.

" As a fitting conclusion to a subject full of interest to every one connected with the cultivation of the land, and as n testimony of an impartial character gained by three years' careful observations and experiments, free from any tinge of bias, llowing aotes by -Mi'. .Johnson may be of service.

" Best Kinds of Silage.

" Sweet silage is better than sour, because chemical analysis slum- that if not overheated ('about which there is no difficulty) more of the valuable ingredients of the fodder arc preserved than is the case with sour.

" (Dr. Voelcker, in his evidence before the Ensilage Commission in March, 1886, stated that the valuable properties of the fodder are more completely secured in sweet silage than in sour, if the overheating Mas prevented.)

"Cattle invariably take to it immediately, whereas with sour silage some animals require to get used to it before freely _■ thereon.

"Dairy produce is never tainted by the use of sweet silage, not even when the stock are fed upon nothing else.

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“ Dairy stock will do well upon sweet silage i£ fed entirely upon it, without the use of cake, meal, or any other food.

“ There is little or no smell arising from sweet silage.

"Desirable Crops fob Silage.

" Meadow-grass seeds, and clover (first and second crop), tares, trifolium, sainfoin, maize, lucerne, grain crops cut when just in car, but still succulent in stalk, and sprets (Jt articulatus), or the coarse grass growing on moors and hill farms, oftentimes on account of the lateness of the season and autumnal rains difficult to secure as hay.

"For arable land a most valuable a mixture of tares, beans, peas, and oats, cut when podded and in ear, but when the stalk is still succulent (if winter-sown), and this yields the best crop; wheat or rye may be substituted in climati oats do not stand well over the winter, care being taken to cut the rye before it is over-ripe and has therefrom lost the succulence of ' stalk which is absolutely n< r perfect success. In most places the rye ripens earlier than the tares and beans, and, although convenient for the purpos keeping the tares off the ground, it should be used in small proportion.

" In some places a catch crop may be secured for making silage after winter-sown tares, as maize, buckwheat, &c, or white turnips and cow-cabbages.

" Silage by itself seems to take the place of roots, and hay or straw with grain or cake combined, and which, when -wheat could he grown to pay, was all very well as a means of utilizing the straw, hut is far too costly at the present time.

" Diet recommended.

" Three seasons' practical experience gives the following results :

"Milch cows do well on sweet silage alone ad lib. Largesized eows consume about lSewt. per month, or nearly 701b. per day. and require no cake, meal, or other food of any description. Variety and change may be obtained by giving different kinds of ensiled fodder, cither mixed or in succession at different meals.

"For fattening slock, sweet silage alone is a complete and successful substitute for roots and hay or straw combined, but.

USEFUL TO Ni:w Z] '

251

ireing, cake or meal should in addition be given, just as is done in ordinary practice with roots, i

The following clipping from the Canterbury Times of the 17th June, !SS7, contains Eurther valuable information on the sub- :

" Silage versus Dry Fodder.

'■ In green succulent foods the cellular tissues have not been converted into woody fibre, and in mastication and digestion all of the nutritive substances in these cells are quickly acted upon by the saliva of the mouth and then the gastric juices of the stomach, and all the nutriment is assimilated with only a minimum expenditure of force by the animal economy to digest it. latural moisture of the plants when green also acts as a compensation, and requires but little besides the gastric juice to make the food fluid enough for digestion. With dry food nature is heavily taxed at all points to make good the loss of the juices or moisture of the food. The secretions of the mouth ailed upon to moisten the dry food. The woody fibre of the plants must be broken down and. disintegrated by the power of gasti'ic force to set free the real nutriment of the food. This force is several times greater than is necessary when succulent food is fed. All this extra expenditure of force must be supplied by the animal, and therefore calls for ait increased amount of food to make good ibis demand, or else the animal falls off in flesli. In ensilage there may be a slight loss in the carbo-hydrate elements, and a gain is made in protein, and increased digestibility of the rest, which gives Eeeding value to what lias often been termed the water in ensilage. It is not only easily digested, but also helps to digest other richer foods, including grain ; and, thus adding the natural juices of plants to aixed ration, aids nature to assimilate them without calling upon the digestive economy of the animal to do all the work. In the other cases all this matter is dried down to a hard condition, and must have water to re-absorb it, freshen it up, and dissolve it, which requires a good deal of time and a good deal of extra force. If you take an apple you will find the nutriment ail in a soluble condition, and when you take it into the stomach it is ready to go into the circulation at once. If you dry that apple all the nutriment becomes like raw hide, and it must be soaked up, and when you have done that you have changed its condition; you can never get it back in the same

150

GRASSES AXD FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

condition it was before the drying was done, and it takes more energy and force to digest that dry food than in its green state. That is the pith of the whole matter. The nutriment or the sugar in dry food is not necessarily changed hy the evaporation of the water, but it is simply breaking the chemical union of the water with the rest of the compound, and that chemical union has got to be restored by energies of the stomach, which makes extra work, and makes it slow. In feeding a cow you want to give her what she can eat in a given time. A dry feed may contain as much nutriment, but you cannot get as much out of it, because it takes so long to do it that the animal has got to support itself while it is being digested. The point is simply this: that in the green stage the albumen and other matter is, to a large extent, already in solution in a condition in which, when it i-. separated from the fibrous matter, it can be taken right into the circulation and appropriated. In wetting or steaming fodder it will help considerably, but not overcome the change which the feed undergoes in the desiccation and soaking-up again.—Professor Arnold."

Fig. 45.

Johnson's Silage-stack Pkess.

Fig. 40.

Johnson's Silage-stack Press. DETAIL.

Fig. 47.

K.A.S.E. Prize Silage Stack.

A PPEN DIX.

ON THE TURNIP CROP IN CANTERBURY.

By W. E. Ivey, M.R.A.O., F.I.C., F.C.S., Director, and G. Gray, F.C.S., Lecturer on Chemistry, School of Agriculture, Lincoln.

Ik this part of New Zealand the turnip-crop should be the mainstay of the farmer for winter feed, although the climate, from its comparative dryness, may not be so favourable for roots as that of some other parts of the colony. With proper cultivation there would appear, however, to be but little difficulty in securing a crop, as, even though the season may be a dry one, there are, as a rule, ich there falls sufficient moisture to insure germination of the and to tide the voting plant over the first few days of its growth, and until its roots have penetrated deeply enough to obtain a supply of moisture from below. But in order to secure the benefit of these moist periods, and to insure that after germination of the seed the young plant shall have the best chance of flourishing, it is absolutely necessary that the land be thoroughly well cultivated. \ good tilth is the first consideration in the growth of turnips, and without it—unless the season be exceptionally wet—the attempt to grow a good crop of this root will probablv prove a failure. That the crop often does fail on a single furrow out of grass "is generally due to the fact that the land is rough, harsh, and altogether unsuited for the reception of a small seed like that of the turnip, or for the delicate rootlet of the tender plant. When land has been down in grass for some years the particles of soil tend to aggregate into lumps—m a virgin soil tl ally noticeable,—and no amount of working will bring this state into a good tilth; it must be exposed to weather action There is always also more or less acidity in such soils, which militates against the success of such a crop as the turnip. _ „ , ,

Considering that the turnip-crop is really the basis of all good farm similar climates to ours, as distinguished from " cropping "or " stripping, betterattention than it too often gets is certainly its due. Too frequently and is broken up during the dry spring, worked down, the seed sown broadcast, the only chance of a crop depending upon a succession of wet days. Tins method is cheap, and sometimes a fair crop is grown, but more likely—unless the land be exceptionally well suited-two or three sowings may have to bo made not even always then resulting in a crop. The exigencies of their position no doubt at times force farmers into these rough-and-ready modes, and where land is of small value, being perhaps, not of good quality and distant from the market, it is hard to recognise the advisability of expending upon the turnip-crop an amount of money largelv proportionate to the value of the land. But on valuable land the oss of the, turnip-crop is a serious matter; it means little winter feed for stock and therefore a lessened number throughout the year, and from essence! sheep dressing a smaller yield of grain and grasses. Therefore no steps should be omitted which would tend to success in raising this crop, above all others On those lands whore large rents or heavy interest must be paid the soil must not be idle It becomes a vital question whether we should not, by the best cultivation, and, where necessary, by the use of suitable manures, aim at growing as heavy crops of roots as possible. With grain at even very moderate prices I fee sure that this is the most profitable course, and, even if we decide to grow almost exclusively live stock, there can be but little doubt but that a certain number o turnips will, by providing feed, enable the farmer to carry throughout the "cat a much greater number of stock than he otherwise could, whilst a succeeding crop of spring corn and a following clover-hay crop would furnish l»m with dry food so necessary for sheep when on turnips.

GRASSES AND FOBAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

152

The best time to take a turnip-crop is undoubtedly after a grain-crop. Tho mill he ploughed as soon as the autumn wheat-sowing is finish until spring work is completed, when it may he en '.iked down, it then falling, or crumbling, down before the implements, and we obtain that most desirable condition, a goo suitable for the reception of tho small seed, and for the support and nourishment of the young plant. Where the climate is dry it is very important that I should be thus thoroughly and naturally pulverised by atmospheric action, so that a supply of moisture he obtained from . and that the conditions necessary for of that supply—which were broken by the plough —be as thoroughlyo as quickly as may be.

Water rises in soil by capillary attraction, the capillary or hair-like tubes being here represented by the interstices between the particles of soil, which taken to bi and, as the finer the tube the tter will rise in it. so tie.: liner tlie particles of soil tho smaller the inter.l them; the finer the irregular tubes the higher will tin rise in the soil. Therefore it is desirable that the soil should be friable throughout the thickness of the furrow-slice, and worked into a uniform condithat depth, so tint there should bo no greater bri lan be avoided iil and the uncultivated subsoil, that there should he as each of continuity as may be between the two, so that the water of the subsoil high as possible into the soil.

I affords a bi tl to the in spring, is too hard and harsh to allow of the penetration of hot drying winds. Com]) ore land p] ared with that broken up out of ' i;d has been down re. In the lal ploughed late in spring, I ise of the gra possible for I itock ; it breaks up roughly, and soon more or les.- m the sun, however soon it may be worked down. Ti turned down and forms an effective harrier to the continuity of the ■ soil with tie' subsoil, and not mts the rising of moi>: shrinking, serves to allow of the circulation of dry air from above. Implements seldom or never penetrate to the full depth of the furrow-slice, the whole surface is never thoroughly broken, and the whole thickness is, except perhaps on sandy lands, more or less rough, harsh, and lumpy throughout, and is, pointed out, utterly unfitted for the reception of the small turnip-seed, which, iniiler these ■ can only in a wet season grow and produce a crop. Should there fall even a sufficiency of rain to germinal falls at short inter linking of the soil e ndition, increasing the width of tl between the lumps, allowing the pass dry air, and either the i i is more or less starved by death of t

' The ol lised to taking roots after grain an? that tho land is too long idle, is weedy, and requires more labour than if the turnips were grass. The first objection will not bear examination, for the stubble would be ploughed for a second grain-crop if not for turnips, and there would hand be a positive loss of grass by ploughing lea land in spring. Cr raise the second ob in the ease of sorrel after s and the third would follow; but in prop, cly ed land sorrel would havi obtained no hold after the first grain-crop, w destruction of annual : the fast-increasing twite r opportunity offers than during the cultivation which takes i nths of early summer. Land in good tilth after a grain-crop will n< much greater quantity of annual weeds than rough land oul but if a of tr< atment be adopted the crop in the former i free from weeds, and in the latter may not. turnips I have already said—at ploughing late in sprb in order to make use of the moisture in the newly-] .\ it and sow immediately. H there follows rain and the weed-seeds, often in sufficient nu] ffect the crop. Bui v., land is in goo I tilth it is i' c sining anil early suinn: . allowed to lie idle for a short time so that moisture may rise from below, and time the wi d s near the surface , and may be killed a broad share- or disc-harrow prior to the drilling of the turnip land is

153

APPENDIX.

the drilled turnips only require thinning by a the drills, w] aks the si; and favours thi thout the use of irly sowing on that not in g tion points out 1 of the yi ually falls in fair quantities. And it that in •> land there is plenty of time for i Swedes, and perhaps on sou: in favour of Late live towards the end of ti. lior.

ider the system 1 advotility of havn not much difl is undoubtedly made up ova c i Jain in the increased yield of roots.

In ill :e in growing and rish to bring under ailts of the use of artificial mam value ho cost of cultivation, of folding ;rown and number of stock kept.

main crop of turnips on this farm is fallen after wheat, the piece annually after grass. Br cost of manure has also been taken and the rule has b ml the i bin, and not compi Lch so that i .able if, during ■' a catch crop.

1 manure when drilling . ith land in fair hi art, I do a it think that this is a order as our lands are as yet in no wise turnip-sick ; but >e being ur-drili is used for distributing oil under the seed; and in fresh land ii I would— with wat the drill for a crop. On might be purchased at too high a price if m acre which pi the cost of cultivation, rer and poor land, however, the success on i leave but little doubt 8 ability of incui lenditure where the land is of value. It must be borne m nun 11 point out later—t t not look to the inci turnip i of our expenditure on manure, but to inci ring-corn and clover crops, due to the inc manuri i of that portion of the applied the turnips. _ ,

water is not represented by the increased yield . of success in securing a crop is due. rcing effects of the manar i " rough the most dangerous it rough leaves—at which ;aeks of insects and birds. This quicker ung, to some lublesome, their supplies of food i in the summer. _ _

manured ci o ascertained by weighing each year tion with manure experiments, but also to obtain and in givil I that, at any rate, the turnips m No. 18 I were not the best on the farm. In fact, in no taken of a heaviest crop, but with reference to the effects of certain manures.

154

GRASSES AND FOBAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND

Table showixg Yield or Tubnips, with Particulars as to Kind sown and Kind and Quantity op Manure used.

The cost of cultivation on this farm is about as follows, viz.:—

s. d.

Ploughing in winter ) . 1 _ Cross-ploughing in spring [*' ** 11 0 P er acre -

" r : ° o — o i Harrowing .. .. .. 3 6 „

Rolling .. ., .. .. 2 0

Drilling and carting water .. ., 4 0

Two cwt. artificial manure .. .. 16 0

Seed .. .. ., .. 18

Horse-hoeing .. .. .. 16

Total .. .. .. 39 8

If the crop were sown broadcast without manure there would be saved—cost of manure, 16s.; drilling, 3s. 6d.' seed, Is. —20s. 6d.; but against this must be placed the probability of having to sow at least twice. Resowing would cost at least 4s. for disc-harrows or broadshare, rolling, sowing, harrowing, and seed. The difference is therefore merely the cost of the manure, unless the crop is taken after grass, when some portion of the cost of the nloughine would be saved.

ititui. giu&o, vviien wine pox. won oi tne cost oi me piougmng would oe saved. In comparing the two systems, the question of yield comes at once to the front, in supposing that the almost absolute certainty of the one in assuring a crop be not compared with the dependence upon season in the other. Even though this important advantage be ignored in making our calculations, I think,

APPENDIX.

155

from yield alone, the more profitable results of the better system of cultivation will be apparent.

In no instance have I grown by sowing broadcast half the weight of turnips the drill and manure have produced. I have not the weights, but they would lio useless if 1 had, as the conditions of soil, &c, would not allow of comparison. With water alone, drilled turnins gave last year 30 tons against 41 tons scwt. where manure was used, but in less favourable years the crop without manure would compare less favourably. I have no hesitation in stating the proportion to be quite 35 to 20 tons in the case of properly cultivated and manured land compared with rougher land sown broadcast.

The average of the above given weighed results gives an average of 35A tons per acre (with tops). I feel certain the same land not thus treated would not yielded 22 tons per acre. But, for the sake of calculation, say the excess due to better cultivation, and mauure would have been 12 tons per acre. If we allow that an average flock of sheep—part wethers, part hoggets—will cat daily throughout the winter 251b. of turnips each—without other food—2o tons of turnips, allowing 10 per cent, for waste, would keep about 230 sheep one week, and, if the keep of a sheep is worth about l|d. for that time, a 20-ton crop of turnips would bo worth 335. Gd. per acre, and a 32-ton crop 535. 7d. per acre ; or value be lid. per head per week we get the values 28s. 9d. and 4Gs. per acre, in either case the excess in value being more than sufficient to pay the cost of the manure used.

We, however, do not look to our sheep for our profit on the turnip crop. This - out of the following grain and clover crops, which are increased through the manuring of the surface-soil with the droppings of the sheep. The residue of a crop left left on the ground by the sheep is quite 95 per cent, of the crop grown : if therefore the droppings from a 20-ton crop will markedly increase the yield of grain, &c, in the following years, that from 32 tons must further increase that yield, and the difference between the two yields must be entirely profit, for I have shown that the sheep will pay for the cost of the manure applied, the cost of cultivation and rent are the same for our grain and clover crops whether the yield be large or small, the only excess of cost in the case of heavy crops being for harvesting.

It may be argued that, after all, all the substance of the sheep-dressing actuallv came out of the land in the turnip-crop, and therefore there is no real addition of manurial matter. But even although it were allowed that it did come out of the land, it by no means follows that manure has not been added. To explain this, let us take the case of gram. The manurial substance or food chiefly required by grain is nitrogen in a certain state of combination known as a "nitrate. 7 ' "In no other condition is it of immediate value. The soil, whilst generally containing plenty of nitrogen, furnishes but a very scanty supply of nitrates, the great bulk being in a state of combination with carbon, &c, in decaying vegetable matter, in which it cannot be taken up by grain crops. The effect of feeding off the turnip crop with sheep is to change a certain amount of this useless nitrogenous compound into another which is a valuable manure. In fact, we actually add to our surface-soil so much manure which was not there before.

It is the urine of the sheep which contains this valuable nitrogenous substance, and, as most of the nitrogen voided by animals passes off in the urine, we find that most of the nitrogen contained in the turnip crop is returned in this valuable condition; but even that contained in the solid excrement is in a far more valuable condition than in the turnips before they were passed through the digestive organs of the sheep. We may therefore truthfully say that the sheep has manufactured out of inert, almost valueless matter a most valuable manure, and added it to our soil.

Twenty tons of turnips contain about 1001b. nitrogen, and therefore 32 tons contain 1601b. A 40-bushel crop of wheat contains, according to kind, climate, &c, say from 451b. to 601b. nitrogen in grain and straw. As 95 per cent, of the nitrogen contained in the turnip-crop is returned to the land in the excrement of the sheep fed thereon, it is easy to conceive that from the excess of 12 tons of turnips per acre, in a manured crop, there may bo deposited, on consumption by sheep, sufficient nitrogen in an immediately available condition for 30 to 40 bushels of wheat, and, as in a 32-ton crop we have deposited also the nitrogen from the 20 tons, wc may, I think, after also crediting the soil with containing

156

i:s AND Pi NTS I SKI 11. TO NEW ZEALAND,

some available nitrogen, fairly expect on our manured land an increase of say 8 l " l!l bushels of wheat over that unmanured. We have added plenty of manure, and if we do not get our return we must blame bad mechanical condition of the soil through poacl p's feet in wet weather, or a bad season, —both, no doubt, el. ments which should be seriously considered in our calculations.

I think there can be but little doubt but that it will pay to fold sheep on ce frequently sheep are moved the better, but the low . mutton and the high price of labour must prevent our giving them a fresh pitch .<■ should like. I move them onco a week, and even t iving of feed, and is much better for the sheep than allowing them to run large piece of turnips, pei hups sufficient for six or eight weeks. In the former ore evenly, for if they are turned on to a large piece of turnips they have at first a flush of feed, and for a few days the choice pickings ; they then run over the whole piece, biting every turnip. The bitten turnips quickly deteriorate from exposure to wind, rain, and frost, and after two or three I be sheep care little for them, and toward- portion of the time, they are too often forced by sheer hunger to scoop out the shells and consume previously rejected roots, they go back in condition, and actually lose much of the weight they had previously put on. Again, by folding there is much less loss of turnips by waste, and lastly we are enabled to use our ewe flock for funs,nng up turnips after our fatting sheep, thus allowing of our moving fresh turnips before they have I I tired of th been already on for some days. Tie ■ k, pt in a progressive condition out check.

The cost of folding, using wire net and sawn stakes, amounts to about .. acre, which amount includes labour, cost of material, &c. The savin" in : lit, : i.e., a piece of turnips which would ! ight weeks would, if the sheep were folded, la- , The savin" w .°" ld ' alluded to in this paper, at least "gut toi r an expenditure, inch E 12s to 15s roved condition of the sheep is even then not taken into consideration.

It is a great mistake to put sheep on to turnips without hay or other dry ■ cially are very liable to suffer by such treatment, whilst on ir hand, with a little hay, ewes may be kept on turnips quite up to lambing without loss of lambs.

Hay may be grown and made here quite cheaply enough to be used as an equivalent for turnips. The cost of cutting, acking, ush and straw-elei 5 not on this farm - d.perton lidding rent thatching, cutting, and carting to sheep in winter, the cost on the turnip land would be under 15s. per ton, or about Jjth of a penny per lb. The f< f lib. of hay is about equal to that of 71b. of turnips, and sheep lib. of hay a day will each eat daily about 171b. to 181b. of turnips ,Ib. of hay costing Jd. will to 561b. of turnips, worth for food as as possible the same money. Calculating tl value of green clover at Ijct. or 1-i. per head of sheep per week, there is no appreciable loss in si up a clover paddock in spring for hay. whilst the advantages of having hay are" too obvious to need pointing out. If only we save the too usual loss of b are enabled by its i ly keep our ewes on turnips until lambii th ", s sa f of the ewes when lambing, we should ni without But also, as hay can be so economically made as to be as ch turnips for sheep, if we have a good stock of hay we can, by using more , i the rate at which our turnips are being consumed.' an be enabled to take advantage of the fluctuation of the stock mark. ves will not compare with clover hay for oheapni feed. I sed for this purpose and at the same rate per head a l '' kl | " as . "' " ! I <y and turnips, and calculating the equh foods, I find that the return for oats would he about Bd. p, threshed. *

hereunder "T"' °' turni P s tried '" «>e farm, I prefer those ■

For early feeding, say until il Hay, the Devonshire Gre: succeed theße for use until the middle of July, the Imperial Green I

157

APPENDIX.

.1. turnip that, whilst lasting in a perfectly sound condition until the end of September, is not so hard as the \ Tieties, whilst its feeding value is equally good.

For information upon this question of the feeding-value of the various kinds of tnmips and the effects of certain manurial substances thereon, 1 would direct attention to Mr. Gray's excellent paper hereunder—one which is the result of a ■ patient research in the laboratory, work which, when tabulated, - to the ordinary observer but a faint conception of the real labour in- ■■

I would point out, as the most interesting portion of these results, first, the varyin of albuminoid nitrogen—the portion whir!' £ value in the formation of flesh—in the different kinds of turnip; and, secondly, the nt effects of I : manures used in causing variations of tin the same kind of turnip. The use of nitrogen as a manure for turnips should be avoided, for it increases the percentage of tops (see my report well as decreasing the ratio of albuminoid to non-albuminoid nitrogen in the bulb.

On the Composition and Feeding-value op T

■ the past two years fair average specimens of the turnips grown on the School Farm have been analysed, and, since the analys le somewhat in detail, especially as regards the nitrogen, it has been thought desirable to publish the combined results, with a few remarks 0:1 the composition and feed-ing-value of turnips generally.

The results, therefore, contained in the following paper will include those published in the report of the school for the first term, 1884, which have been revised and in some cases recalculated in order to compare with the results of the turnips grown in 1885.

In selecting the samples for analysis care was taken that they should reprc--3 far as possible the crops as a whole ; and the opinion , of at least two, and in some cases three, persons were taken on this point. Segments of each root were taken for analysis cut from the top to the bottom, thereby representing the entire turnip.

The results of the analyses arc contained in the following table :

Table I.—Analyses of Turnips.

The high proportion of water in the turnip renders it a poor feeding-material, the amount of dry matter being generally only about Bor 9 percent, hi the samples under consideration the limits were 1001 to 8-27, with a mean of 911 per cent. The substances of which the dry matter is composed, when considered

158

GRASSES AND FOBAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

as constituents of food, are divisible into flesh-formers and heat-givers, the former embracing albuminoids, and the latter the carbohydrates—sugar, &c it is on the relative amount of these two classes of food that the feeding-value depen Is. All the turnips examined were lighter than water. It lias been frequentlystated that the specific gravity can be taken as an indication of the feedingvalue ; and that tins is the case is well shown in the following table, in which the specific gravities, the albuminoids calculated on the dry matter, and the albuminoid ratios are compared :

Table ll.—Comparison of Specific Gbavities, Aibumihoids, and Albuminoid Ratios in Tubnips.

The albuminoid ratios are obtained by adding together the carbohydrates or their equivalents, which are digestible—the sugar, extractive matter', and fat the latter calculated to its equivalent in starch—and then dividing the product by the number representing the albuminoids. It will be seen that with only two or three exceptions, a high specific gravity is accompanied by a hi centage of albuminoids and a high albuminoid ratio, and rice versfi'

„ -o— '■"■•' ■■""■' u i "mi till, L/crdU. r.—Fully one-half of the dry matter contained in turnips is composed of sugar. 1 Ins is of the same kind as that contained in sugar-beet and sugarcane ? n "n ° ne ,' 10 m °f va , luable of the heat-giving ingredients of feedingstuffs. The numbers under the heading of "Fat, Ac," besides fat, include chlorophyll, wax. and other substances soluble in ether.

1 —J "> 1 ""- "«*«.* ouuawnn.es ouiuuie 111 CLIILI. ictive Matter includes various substances which have not been deter mined individually, but which are assumed to possess a feeding-value equivalent to starch, sugar and other carbohydrates. Amongst such might be mentioned digestible fibre, bodies of the pectose group, and also certain nitrogenous bodies (amides, Ac.), which will be considered later.

ilose.— This substance is not included in the number showing the albu rmnoid ratio, since it is assumed to be indigestible. It consists of that portion of the turnip winch resists the action of 5-per-cent. solutions of acid and alkali Ins treatment is intended to represent the solvent action of the natural digestive .",,;, , ' «sults, of course, are not absolutely correct for all kinds of animals - still, the determinations are of value for comparative purposes.

Nitrogenous Substances.—The most important results, perhaps, obtained in th ? P ri as are th °se showing the several conditions in which n exists in turnip,. During the past few years the attention of chemists and agriculturists has been drawn to th, fodders and feeding-stuffs in more than one condition, aid that the i hese form- possess the same nutritivevah others. that existing m albuminoid uitrogenwhic] true flesh-fo allied bodies, in nitrates, and in ammonia salts, is found to ] these substances being about equivalent to the carbohydrates. The ni- ■

267

APPENDIX

several forms was i in the analyses of last year; the results then obtained uavi I and confiri i made this season. The were calculated on the entire turnip, but those obtained this year, in order to ' alised, have been calculated on the dry m the turnip only. It has been ueoessary, therefore, to recalculate the former, in that they may he compared. The following table shows the combined results obtained: —

Table lll.—Showing the several Conditions in which Nitbogen IN THE DltY MATTEB OF TUBNIPS.

--..- results show that, in the samples analysed, at most only 01 per cent, of -led as albuminoids, and that in some cases only about 30 per cent. was in this form. Taking the mean of the eleven samples the amount would be c cent.

or two points are noticeable in the results, which bear on the influence of manures as affecting the composition of the crop, and, although it might bo urged with reason that isolated cases are not to be depended on, still the points about to be noticed are not without significance.

The Green Globe turnip, manured with Belfast manure, will be seen to be richer in total nitrogen than any other turnip, even the Fosterton Hybrid and Aberdeen. This must clearly he due to the nitrogen supplied in the guano. This manure is an animal guano made from the refuse of the freezing works, and had the following composition:—

Per cent.

Moisture .. .. .. . • 9‘80

•Organic matter and combined water .. 68-37

fMonocalcic phosphate .. .. .. 4-61

Tricalcic phosphate .. .. .. nil

xncaicic pnospuauj .. .. .. mi Ferric and aluminic phosphates .. .. 3 - 25

Calcic sulphate .. .. .. .. 5‘97

Silica and insoluble matter .. .. 7’07

Alkalies, loss, and undetermined .. .. *33

100-00

* Containing nitrogen, 4 27; equal to ammonia, 5-J8.

wutaiuiug ■* ~i f ''■1 — ’ \ Equivalent to tricalcic phosphate rendered soluble, 6 08.

100

GRASSES AND FORAGE-PLANTS USEFUL TO NEW ZEALAND.

Although the total percentage of nitrogen is high it will be observed that the proportion of nitrogen existing as albuminoids is not so ; in fact it is below that of the same kind of turnip grown without manure, but with other conditions precisely i Since it has been al 1 that it is only the nitrogen ting as albuminoids which is of service as a flesh-former, it must be inferred that the feeding value of turnips is not increased by the use of nitrogenous manures.

Whilst it must be admitted that phosphates, especially those in a soluble form, have a considerable influence on the growth of the turnip plant, yet both in the case of the Devonshire Greystone and the ' ips, which grown without manure, the percentage of albuminoids is above that of the same turnips grown with superphosphate. Thi prove that phosphates not generally required, for this is beyond doubt, but that the use of I manure tends to diminish the percentage of albuminoids, and that an <: should be guarded against. This point has been already noticed by Dr. Aitkin, chemist to the Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland, and the present results are only confirmatory.

INDEX OF BOTANICAL NAMES.

Pages.

Achillea millefolium .. .. .. .. ..

i stolonifera .. .. .. .. .. 3,37,108

2, 13, 103

Anthoxanthum odoratum .. .. .. .. .. .. 35,103

Arrhenatherum avenaceum.. .. .. .. .. ..3,31

laflavescens .. .. .. .. .. .. ..3,33

79

; napus .. .. .. .. .. .. 3, 09

oleracea .. .. .. .. .. .. ..3,71

rapa .. .. .. .. .. .. 3, 75

Bromus uniolides .. .. .. .. .. .. 2, 17

Cuscuta trifolii .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 127

Cynosurus cristatus .. .. .. .. .. 3, 23, 103

Dactylis clom .. .. .. .. -. 2,5,103

Daucus carota .. .. .. .. .. .. 3, 85

Faba .. .. .. .. .. - - •. 3, 91

Festuca duriuscula .. .. .. .. .. 3,25,103

elatior 2,11,103

„ ovina .. .. .. .. .. • • .. 3, 27

pratensis .. .. .. .. .. .. 2, J, 103

Heliantbus annuus .. .. •. - • •• .. 3, G3

tuberosus .. .. - • • • • • •• 07

Holcus lanatus .. .. .. •• •• •■ •• 7,117

Lolium italicum .. .. .. • • ■ • .. 3,21 ™~ « 3. 19

perenne .. .. .. • • • ■ ■ • .. o, ly

Medicaeo sativa .. .. .. • ■ - • • • 3, 47

Onobrychis sativa .. .. .. .. • ■ • • 3, 51

Orobancke elatior .. .. .. .. .. ■ • ■ • 129

minor .. .. .. .. .. •■ •■ l- tJ

Panicum miliaceum .. .. .. •- •■ ..3,59

Pastinaca sativa .. . - . ■ • - - • • • , ■ • 3, 8^

Phleum pratcuse .. .. .. • - ■ ■ ■ ■ 2, 15, 103

Pisuin arvense .. .. • • ■ • ■ • - • 3, 89 . . .. n nr\ mo

Poa trivialis .. .. • • • ■ • • ■ • 3, 29, 103

Sinapis .. .. .. - • • - • ■ • • .. 3, 77

Sorghum nigrum .. .. .. .. ■ ■ ■ • .. 3, 61

saccharatum .. .. . - • ■ ■ • .. 3, Gl

Trifolium bybridum .. .. - - ■ • • • 3, 41

pratense .. . - • • • • ■ ■ " ?' 5

pratenee perenne.. .. - • ■ • ■ ■ .. 3, 43

repena .. . - .. • • ■ - • ■ .. 3, 39

Vicia .. • • ■ ■ ■ • • • • • • • .. 3, 53

Zea may?.. .. .. •■ •• •* • ■ .. 3,57

11—Pt. I

GENERAL INDEX.

Pages.

Alfalfa, or lucerne

Alsike clover .. .. .. .. .. 3, 41, 107, 108,100

Artichoke, Jerusalem .. .. .. .. .. .. 07

Bean, Field .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3, 89

Bonedust .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 119

Brome-grass .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 100

Broom-rape, lesser and greater .. .. .. .. .. 129

Cabbage .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3. 71

Cape- or hawk-weed .. .. .. .. .. ~ ng

Carrot .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3 85

Chinese sugarcane, or sorgho .. .. .. .. .. 3 61

Classification of grasses and forage-plants .. ~ .. .. 0, 3

Clover dodder .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 127

Clover, Perennial red, or cow-grass .. .. .. 1, 3, 43, 105, 107, 103

Red or broad .. .. .. 3, 45, 105, 107, 108, 109

White .. .. . . .. 1, 3, 39, 103,' IGS, 10t| 10s' 109

Cockchafer .. .. .. .. .. .. . _ 135

UUVHUWVI, .. .. .. .. ~ .. .. i.w Cocksfoot .. .. ..1, 2, 5, G, 7, 100, 103, 105, 107, 10S, 109, 122

% -" Jl -"" J '"■-•" ■- ■• ••■"■» *»f **» "l • 1 J-uw, iull, iW, IUI, IUO, HJJ, J.-,: Common fern .. .. .. .. ~ .. >t 117, ]IS

Common millet .. .. .. .. .. .. ~ 3 59

Cow-grass, or perennial red clover .. .. .. 1, 3, 43, 105, 107 108

Crested dog's-tail .. .. .. 3, 23, 99, 100, 103, 105, 107, 103, 109

Depth of covering of grass-seed .. .. .. .. .. 105

Docks .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ~ us

Ergot and ergotism .. .. .. ~ ~ wi 131

Fern, Common .. .. .. .. .. ~ ti 117 H8

Fescue, Havd .. .. .. .. 3, 25, 103, 105, 107, 108, 109, 122

Meadow .. .. 2, 9, 99, 100, 103, 105, 107, 108, 109, 111! 113

Sheep's .. .. .. .. .. 3, 27, 105, 107, 109

Tall •- ■• •• .. .. 2,11,103.105.10,

3 91

Field-pea .. .. .. .. .. ~ tm 3' SO

Fine grasses .. .. .. .. .. ~ tm '3

Fiorin .. .. .. .. .. .. 3, 37, 103, 107, 108

Germination of grass-seed .. .. .. ~ iQI 102 104

Golden oat-gra .. .. .. .. 3, 33, 100, 106! 109

Grasses and forage-plants, Classification of ..

Grasses, Cultivation of the .. .. ~ ~ 2* o

„ Influence of climate and seasons on the .. .. .. \jq

List of the artificial

natural .. .. .. ~ go

Nutritive value of the .. .. .. .. go

„ P nd pests of the .. .. .. ~ j2G

Grass-lands, General treatment of ..

i.l Nl 1! \l. INDEX

IG3

Pages.

■ • ■ ■ ■ ■ • •. ' 105

101, 102, 104

industry .. .. .. ~ _ _ '

ire of, for good or medium Boils .. ~ iQ7

for chalky or limi .. tm 109

soils .. .. 103

of buying . . . . . . _ _

CtlOn, miXtU] . . . . tm gg

scue ■ ■ • • ■ • .. 3, 25, 103, 105, 107, 108, 109, 122

3 57

135

3, 21, 105, 111

m artichoke .. .. .. .. .. 67

aded .. .. .. .. .. 373

tanure .. .. .. ~ .. HY

of •■ •• .. .. .. 119

Lucerne, or alfalfa .. .. .. .. .. 3 47 105

. or Indian-corn .. . . .. .. .. 3 25

3' 83

ire-lands, Top-dressing of .. .. 119 120 121

2, 9, 99, 100, 103, 105, 107, 108, 109, 111 113

il •■ •• -• -- .. 2,13, 99*. IO3! 105! 107

b-stalked .. .. 3, 29, 100, 103, 105, lOB

Millet, Common ..

* - d for chalky or lim [s .. .. .. 109

„ „ for good or medium soils .. .. ~ inn

for wet soils .. .. .. ~ __ 103

Mustard .. . . . . . . .. ~ ~ _ _ 3 77

Oat-grass, Tall .. .. .. .. .. .. 3, 3], 105

Parasites and pests of the .. .. .. ~ 126

P ■• •- •• -■ •• •- .. ..3,87

Pea, Field .. . . .. .. .. .. .. 3, 89

Perennial red clover, or COW-grosa .. .. ..3,43 105 108

Perennial rye-grass .. .. 1, 3, 19, 98, 99, 100, 105, 10?] Ill’ 113

Prairie-grass .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 2, 17 49

Rap® .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3, 69

Red or broad clover .. .. .. ..3,45, 105, 107, 108, 109

Rough-stalked meadow-grass .. .. 3, 29, 100, 103, 105, lOB

Rye-grass, Italian .. .. .. .. .. .. 3,21

Perennial .. .. .. 1,3,19,08,99,100,111,113,122

Sainfoin .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3, 51, 105

Selection, mixture, and sowing of grass-seeds for permanent pasture .. 98

Sheep’s fescue .. .. .. .. .. 3, 27, 105, 107, 109

Silage, Best kinds of .. .. .. .. .. ~ 147

w Desirable crops for .. .. .. .. .. .. 148

„ diet recommended .. .. .. .. .. .. 148

„ stacks and means of compression .. .. .. .. 138

„ versus dry fodder .. .. .. .. .. .. 149

Silos and silage .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 137

Soft woolly grass, or Yorkshire fog .. .. .. .. gy, 100, 117

Sorgho, or Chinese sugarcane .. .. .. .. .. 3, 61

Sorrel .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 118

Sugar-beet .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 79

272

GENERAL INDEX

Pages.

Sunflower .. .. .. .. ~ .. .. 3, 63

Superphosphate of lime .. .. .. .. .. .. 119

Sweet-scented vernal .. .. .. .. .. 35, 100, 103, 105

Tare, or vetch .. .. ~ .. .. .. .. 3, 53

Tall fescue .. .. ~ .. .. 2, 11, 103, 105, 107, 122

Tall oat-grass .. .. .. .. .. .. 3, 31, 105

Thistle .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ' 117

Thousand-headed kalo .. ~ .. .. .. .. 3, 73

Timothy grass .. .. .. 1, 2, 15, 94, 95, 98, 103, 105, 107, 108, 109

Top-dressing of meadow- and pasture-lands .. .. .. 119, 120, 121

Turnip .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3, 75,151

Vernal, Sweet-scented .. .. .. .. .. 35,100,103,105

Vetch, or tare .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3,53

White clover .. .. .. .. 1, 3, 30, 103, 105, 107, 108, 100

Yarrow .. .. .. .. .. .. 3, 55, 107, 108, 109

Yellow or golden oat-grass.. .. .. .. 3, 33, 100, 105, 109

Yorkshire fog, or soft woolly grass .. .. .. .. 99,100, 117

By Authority: George Didsbury, Government Printer, Wellington.—lBB7.