ON THE LAND.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XLV, Issue 6805, 8 December 1916, Page 4

ON THE LAND.

Danthoria in New Zealand. A. H. Cacksyne, Biologist in Journa Gf Agriculture.

The two composite species cf dantho. nia that are used in psstuje forrnationl in New Zealand are LJanthonia seu:iannularis and D. pilcss. The writer uses the term-"compos:te'' species, as they both vary very much, and it is probable that both species reslly consist of a large number of strains, but whether taese sre the result of crossfertilisation or ere really permanently fixed strains has never be'pn determined. Suffice it ,to say that in different localities.the • difference is sufficiently great to be of economic importance. Certain forma yield more herbagejttmi ethers, £and ,3 at times they artCsuperior for the soil cti which they are growing to any of the s^-cdled Eoelish grasses. Ii olher localities the dominant forn;, owing to its sparse development cf herbage and. '.Le.rapidrty with which the leaves dry up, is of ccmpaiatively little me. From this it will be seen that in seed-harvesting it is necessary to gsther from areas wbere the grass : has produced a serviceable pasture. Hawke's Bay and Nelson Danthor.ia pilosa and Auckland D. seraiannul^ris areheld to be the best,|but there are many other districts^ where useful forn;s predominate. ?r>-*x^ The seed of Danthonia pilosa is distinguished from D. seT iimrularis by being much-larger, a?d in not having a complete ring of hairs, about, halfway up the back of the seed. In pilosa ti-ere is sometimes an interrupted ring of hairs, hut generally the back of the seed is virtually bare Prom many weights that I have made the number of seeds per pound averages 550,000 for cilosa and 900,000 for sehiianr.ularis. 'the seedling of pilosa is, however, more vircrous than that ol semiannulari?, so that for seeding purposes a pound of piloaa can be looked upon as equivalent to a pound of semiannu.laris. In habit the two grasses are distinct, serriianiiularis having the longer leaves, and the plant being more erect and tussocky not tending towards the production of a close sward. C. pilosa forms a' comparatively elope sward, and with heavy stocking a quite level 9ward is produced; but the tendency is for grass to get away and dry up, when its stocking capacity is much reduced. If it is kept short a very .considerable aicount of fairly succulent herbage ia produced. In the early~days of the us<= of danthonia in New Zealand .semiannularis was mainly used,f but owing to the advice of the Department piloaa is now mainly used, as it is for general purposes by far the superior foim. D. semiannularis is still used in scrubby (manuka and fern); country where, after sowing, burning from time, to time is necessary. The reason why pilosa is not used so largely in this case is due to the taller and drier growth of semiannularis carrying a fire so much better. ?Much second and third class country in New Zealand originally sown with rye, cocksfoot, &c, is now almost pure dmthonia pasture, it having come into this grass naturally and through atucking with sheep previously pastured in danthonia country, the fleeces carrying and distributing the seed. Much'of the best dantbonia country is quite two-sheep country, and it can be therefore realized that its development into this type of pasture has been a boon to the Dominion. Again, much of the original lowland tussock (Poa austrn--1 is) sheep-country is new mainly danthonia, and carries far more stock than formerly. It must be noted, hGwever, that danthonia is not advocsted on rich lanj, but only on soils where rye-grasa and cocksfoot will not succeed. Another point to be considered is that danthonia'ia never sown on ploughed land except urder special conditions, such as p.urni:.e country, but is practically always sewn on the ssbes^on third-class forest land or or. burnt scrub or fern country. The amount of seed used per acre vaiie-1. In general, far too little ia sown, .but the price h a bar in this particular, and it is hard to persuade farmers that it is necessary often to spend more on the seeding of inferior country than it is; on good land. On poor country, where the'better grasses do noHiold more than a.few years, it is now customary to include from 21b to 61b of danthonia in {the mixture. On -country originally sown with English grasses bnt which has developed into fern and manuka, large amounts of danthonia with some cheap grass like Yorkshire fog fihoudl be used; really from 121b to 161b per acre would be best, but such amounts are rarely used. The best time to sow is from the end of January to the end of March. Danthonia is fairly slow tv develop, hen:e the necessity of using other grasses to cover up tiie land rapidly. However, when once established, dantbonia spreads rapidly, owing to its habit of seeding even when fairly heavily stocked. When kept well down it is excellent sheep pasture, but by autumn it has often got away, and tbe dry herbage is then very inferior for sheep during the winter. Burning ja often resorted tc, but although effective this is a wasteful method. The best results have followed cattle stocking (steers a year and a half to two years and a half old) in . the autumn and winter.. This, of course, is only necessary where tbe herbage , has got hard, dry, and long. Ij the North Island pilosa grows well during the winter ond yields very palatable feed, and it is for this reason that its average carrying' capacity is fairly high.

Danthonia-stands froat well, but I am inclined to think that the better forms are more suited to lowland than upland conditions. 1 am convinced that danthonia would respond amazingly to top-dressing, but experiments in this treatment have not been carried out on an extended scale. Phosphates, both in the form of superphosphate aud basic slag, have, over limited areas, given astonishing results. Danthonia is only suitable for pasture, and 8s it isfgenerally sown on country toojough for hayiraking this is i;o drawback. Sowing is always done broadcast by hand, and the seed is very difficult to sowfowing to the 9eeds matting together, semiannularis being especially bad in this respect. In windy weather it is almost impossible tOj make an even cast. The seed is mainly harvested by hand by Maoris, the heads only being cut, and the] seed flailed, coarse riddles, being used to remove the straw. Where there is a good crap of eeed and the country is sufficiently level stripping ia adopted with very satisfactory results. Areas should be shut up for Eeed about the end of October and thesced harvested in January. The