THE GRASS SEED MIXTURE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 57, 6 March 1912, Page 8

THE GRASS SEED MIXTURE.

XBIXVEKCES OF TOP- DBEMXWG The season for sowing autumn grass will soon be round again, and the man who has a large area of new country to sow down, or who has decided to try and improve on the mixtures which he formerly used, will be turning his thoughts towards this all-important subject. In New Zealand we probably have a climate better adapted to the making of good grass paddocks than any country in the world, and if the paddocks are not what they ought to ie, it is the men who own and manage them that are responsible. Generally speaking, it is in the after-management of their grass area*, where our Xew Zealand farmers fall short and not in the initial putting down: at the same time sufficient consideration is not given by the majority of land owners to the* first steps such as the due preparation of the land and the choosing of the most suitable varieties of grass or their use in the right proportion, and it is this lastmentioned phase of the subject which I propose to discuss in this article.

Whether top-dressing with slag or i other fertiliser will ever be the order | of the day on our rough bush clearings • has yet to be seen, but until our bush land fanners are prepared to do this , they -will, on much of the hill country ' in the Xorth Island, do well to include some of the poorer but hardier grasses ! in their bush land mixtures, and not rely, as so many have done in the past, on the .better kinds of meadow grasses. These no doubt give good results on j first sowing, and continue to do so as ! long as the ashes and their contained | potash are available, and where a bush ] farmer can make fairly certain of re- j couping himself for his outlay from his I crop of surface-sown turnips and grass, I there is not the same necessity to think I of the future. But it is not every class ! of bush land that can be relied upon to | give such returns, and even in districts ] where turniping on the new burn is the | usual custom, many bush holdings, owin"! to unfavourable weather or a fall in the markets, fail to yield what is expected of them. |

THE GRASSING OF SECOND-CLASS BTL-SH LAVD. This problem of clothing the forestdenuded hills of the Dominion with a sward of more or less permanent grasses is a very tough one, and it will get harder as time goes on and the available areas of green bush for falling—as sources for the supply of roots for winter feed—get less. For as long as a sheep farmer on bush land can rely on putting down a fresh area of bush to help him through a hard time or fatten off his wethers, he is not likely to pay much attention to the older fallen and less profitable country.

One of the grasses the good qualities of which are Dot sufficiently recognised by owners of rough bush hills—that U, country which cannot be eventually ploughed—is Poa pratensis. or Kentucky blue grass. Tnis grass can only be regarded as a weed on ploughable or flat country, for even where it is not intended to plough the paddock up, poa pratensis on many classes of flat land grows into a hard, dry mat. and from the very denseness of its growth almost kills itself out and ceases to throw any feed, but springs into active life when disturbed by the plough. On a hillside, however, the constant washings of soil brought down, appear to renew its life and it continues to grow most luxuriantly. It is one of the earliest grasses, has a good feeding value, and is keenly relished by all classes of stock. Of our commercial grass seeds it is one of the smallest, as a pound of it contains nearly 2* million seeds, while cocksfoot has only half-a-million. and rye grass a bare quarter of a million seeds to the pound. It is a seed of rather poor germinating power, t>ut even allowing for this, the above approximate comparisons will make it clear that 1 to 1J lbs. per acre is a sufficient allowance in any mixture. Like all grasses of a permanent habit of growth, it takes some time to come to maturity, and quite eighteen months or even more, will elapse before it makes much of a "show." Considering the small quantity that requires to be used, the eeed js cheap, but care should be exercised to see that the true Poa pratensis seed is obtained, and not that of Poa compressa. which is sometimes substituted for it.

Another good grass "which should re ceive more attention than it does is meadow fescue. This is a grass which may he said to hare most of the good points of rye grass, with the added advantage of permanent growth. It would not pay to include it in a mixture that was to be sown on the very poorest class of bush land, but in mixtures for medium and fair soils it should certainly find a place. The seed is somewhat expensive, costing from 1/6 to 1/8 per lb., as compared with about sid.. which is about the price asked for best lines of Poverty Bay rye grass this season. The seed of meadow fescue is very similar to that of rye grass, but an examination of the seed shows that in meadow fescue the fragment of stalk at the base is longer, slightly separated from the pale, circular in section, and somewhat thinner in the middle and thickened at the free end. In rye grass the stalk is shorter, closely pressed against the pale, elliptical in the transverse section and not narrow in the middle. Once an observant farmer has noted these difference?, he can tell the two seeds at a glance. On poor bush land the assistance which some of the smaller fescues give, such as Chewings. Hard, and Red. towards forming a sward should not be despised, and a pound or so of the two first-mentioned may be included. As the better grasses die out these smaller grasses take then- place, and tend to form a covering of grass in place of worthless and often injurious weeds. With the same object a couple of pounds of Dantbonia semi-annularis may be included in mixtures for poor bush land. It is one of the best of our native grasses, and as it staDds fire, is a valuable agent in the eradication of serao. On country on which sheep are to be the principal stock grazed, a small proportion of yarrow may be added. Those who have had experience of this plant on our New Zealand bush country have found that an allowance of one pound to the hundred acres is sufficient, and that if more than this is sown, the plant speedily takes possession. It should nc-tj of course, be sown on or near any land that it is possible to plough. Extremely divergent opinions hare been expressed as to the advisability of sowing paspalum dilatatum. Some farmers in the North consider it has been their salvation in providing succulent and nu- ' tritious feed for their stock, while | others condemn it wholesale. Much of course will depend on the class of laud on which it is sown. It is a grass that for some reason does much better in some districts than others, and which, therefore*- him»et4.

warmth and moisture to give the best results. One of the Canary grasses, Phalaris bulbosa, which bears a good name for making strong growth in winter, has been experimentally grown by a number of farmers in the Auckland province, but so far has not been sufficiently widely distributed or grown in large enough areas for a definite pronouncement on its value as a cemmercial variety. TEMPORARY AND PERMANENT GRASS. Before making up a grass seed mixture for land that can be ploughed a farmer should decide in his own mind the approximate time he intends the paddock to stay down in grass, and also take into consideration the kind of stock which will chiefly be grazed on it. This last point will perhaps not appeal much to the farmer who runs all kinds, but there are few farmers on t***ll' or moderate sized holdings who do act-give the preference to one particular load.

With the increasing ooat of labour, and the good results now obtained from the systematic top-dressing of our grass paddocks there is a general inclination to keep areas down in grass longer than used to be the case. And as time goes on. and the farmers of the Dominion acquire more detailed knowledge of top - dressing as applied to their very varied classes of land, it is probable that this method will be more extensively followed, and except where much cropping is done, the carefully fed and managed grass paddock will be regarded as too valuable an asset to lightly think of breaking up. Such being the case, the selection of grasses of a more permanent habit of growth will naturally occupy the attention of the intelligent fanner. Among these may be mentioned Meadow Fcrxtail, one of the earliest grasses we have, and one that is keenly relished by stock, and of firstclass feeding value. It takes some little time to come to maturity and the seed is rather expensive, and is not as a rule possessed of high germinating powers, but those who have given this grass a trial on suitable land-drained swamps or alluvial flats of good quality, speak of it in the highest terms. With the advent of the system of top-dressing referred to, a larger use can be made of the so-called perennial rye-grass on land on which formerly, the stronger growing cocksfoot took pride of place. Of all the grasses used in agriculture, probably none respond better to good treatment than this grass. Where it is intended to keep a paddock down for some years, and treat it fairly, every care should he taken to sow only the best grades oX seed, grown on well-established pastures. Cheap ryegrass seed for good land is a delusion and a snare. Far better sow half a bushel of good seed than double the ' quantity of an indifferent quanty. | Timothy is a grass, of which a small I quantity should be included in any mixj ture to be used on good land, if it is inclined to be damp. The seed is small, germinates well, and is. therefore, comI parativelv cheap. It does well on strong | soils, and is unsurpassed on drained swamp. Sutton points oat aa one of the I good qualities of Timothy that it reaches I its height of productiveness in the first year after being sdwn, but unless it is properly fed, there is a tendency to weakness from the third year onwards.

The wonderful manner in which topdressing brings on the clovers in a wornout paddock has to be seen to be believed and in no respect, where slag is used, does any family respond more than white dover—the '%nufcton-maker*" as it lias been termed. It should be remembered that a pound of white clover contains nearly three times the number of seeds that a pound of red clover does, with an almost equal germinating power, which fact should be borne in mind when making up a mixture