RYEGRASS STRAINS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20427, 23 December 1931, Page 8

RYEGRASS STRAINS.

SOUTHLAND INVESTIGATIONS. The report on the Winton Experimental Farm, by the Department of Agriculture, shows that results in the investigation of ryegrass strains are similar to those in Canterbury:— During October, 1929, a block of G acres was sown down with various lines of ryegrass obtained from different sources of origin throughout the Dominion. The whole object of- the experiment was to ascertain whether under Southland conditions the genuine perennial types of ryegrass would assert their superiority over the pseudo-perennial types which are largely produced locally. Each plat was one-fiftieth of an a,cre in extent, ■And fifty lines of seed were sown, each plot being repeated in quadruplicate. Considerable interest has been taken in these plots by the farming community, and, as was anticipated, wide differences in types, were noticed. Invariably those lines of seed originating from the Hawke's Bay, Poverty Bay, and Sandon districts proved to be very greatly superior in growth and swardingcapacity to lines originating in the South Island, thus conclusively proving that what is generally termed Hawke's Bay seed, which is equivalent to Government certified perennial ryegrass, was ideally adapted to Southern conditions, and should be the only type of seed used in the establishment of permanent . pasture. Most of the plots sown with Southern seed are at present

weak, open,, and largely worthless, whereas those plots from,Nprthern seed .in. the main are producing -well, swarding thickly, and in every respect showing their superiority. - There; could be no. v greater vindication •of the claims made fpr certified ryegrass seed than the results obtained on the experimental plots at Winton; ;