Page 22 Advertisements Column 1

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21257, 31 August 1934, Page 22

AUCTIONS. EL MATSON AND CO. nur,ES FOR THE GKAZIEK. (By Professor R. 0. Staplcdon, Aberystwyth. AVales.) WR propose in this section to formulate a scries tit rules for the Grazier. W» will at, th<3 outset, liowover, lay down a number of axioms. The rules ami axioms together will Ferve —although in ft somewhat dogmatic and categorical manner—to suiumariso tho evidences and implications which have occupied our attention in all tho sections dealing with grassland. Firstly, tho axioms, and they nru twenty'four in number: — 1. Tho leaf of a herbage plant is more nutritious than tho stem. 2. Leaf is nutritious in proportion as it t.i young and growing fast. It. Tiie grasses have a higher concentration. o( dry matter than tho clovers. •1. Pastures with a reasonable amount of %hiti> clover ara of higher feeding value than t.iioso from which white clover is totally absent or in which it is present only in small amount. .". Tho clovers ara richer in protein and •alcium than the grasses. fi. Tho species vary in tho rapidity with which they deteriorate in nutritive value with the ageing of the leafage. Burned l"afago is of a very low nutritive value. 7. Grasses deteriorate more rapidly than • lovers. 3. Leaf is moro palatable than stem, and palatability diminishes with increasing age. 0. Persistency is diminished by excessive defoliation —such treatment greatly reducing iho root system of the plants. 10. Persistency is pronounced in proportion *s plants have a high capacity for tho production of tillers and offshoots. 11. Erect growing and early plants arc m a disadvantage compared to spreading and late plants in the matter of punishment by the grazing animal. 12. Plants suffer in direct proportion as they are heavy yielding, that is to say. us they throw up much leafage quickly aft>'r •a oh punishment. 13. ICarlv and late plants in one and the same sward are not compatible—clever management must be based on this fact. 11. Tho management and the weather conditions at one period influence tho productivity at subsequent periods. 15. Usually a heavy hay crop is followed by a relatively light aftermath crop and vico versa. Heavy growth in tho seeding year tends to be followed by light growth in the first harvest year. The taking of two crops of hay in one year usually means poor hay tha following year; excco*ivß crazing in one year usually makes for roduced grass the following season. IC. Moro early Spring grass will follow a hay 'fcrop than will bo forthcoming after a year of grazing. 17. Nitrogen addod to a foundation of phosphatic manures gives its greatest increase in tho hay crop, and gives greater relative increases under a lenient system of grazing than under a drastic system. 18. Nitrogen has the effect of reducing (lovers when applied to a mixed sward. This is largely a result of increased overtopping, by tha grasses. 19. The indigenous strains of grasses are more leafy and moro persistent and have a greater tillering capacity than tho ordinary uoa-indigenoua strains of commerce. 20. The indigenous strains are, however, Inter to start growth in tho Spring than the non-indigenous. Wild white clover is decidedly late to start growth in the Spring. 21. The indigenous strains ara more win—>—rstrSftrwatromr moro sumptuously to nitrogen than do tho nonindigenous. 23. Tho commercial stTains are more eret! growing than the indigenous, and are, ■therefore, more sensitive to punishment by the grazing animal. 24. Herbs like the common daisy ia particular, plantains, oat's ear, and some others aro decidedly winter-green, and are crazed to a very appreciable extent in the Winter. Many such herbs are richer in lime than the grasses. The most important rules which follow from our axioms are twelve in number:— 1. Karly and late species and strains can he turned to advantage in one and tho same sward only if the sward is grazed early in tho season and then rested. Fields which aro grazed right into May (November in New Zealand), and then "put up" for a light and herby hay crop afford tho best example of sound management which "permits of tho use of both early and lato Btrains in the same sward to excellent purpose. The early strains provide the early grazing and the late strains provide the hay. 2. Every sward needs at least one good rest period during the growing season. Heavy gracing must, however, follow such a rest and especially if tho rest has been prolonged. .1. When grazing has been started early in the Spring the field should be given increasingly Icng rest periods later in the season. 4. When pastures aro allowed to grow into miniature hay crops with excess of flowering stems they should bo run over with the mowing machine beforo tho hay harvest ia begun. 5. If hay crops aro continuously taken or the produce from mow-overs removed, it is absolutely essential to mako gopd by adequate manuring. (i. The same is true if animals are only permitted short grazing periods per day on •ny particular sward. 7. Manures should bo applied when the loot systems of tho plants are active and when they aro not restricted. Do not, therefore, apply manures very early in the Spring or when pastures aro being grazed to excoss. Tho early Autumn is an adinirablo time to apply manures. 8. The grass-clover ratio is influenced to a marked dogreo by tho intensity of the grazing. To allow pastures to go into the Autumn with excess of tall and burned herbage handicaps clover development—to gra/.e on a too long rotation is also to handicap the wild white clover. Tf the treatment in <nio year has been greatly to handicap white <-lover, tho grazing in the next year should ho designed to favour the clover at the expense of grass—that i 3 to say, tho grazing khould bo more heavy. 0. Poor fields in which the less palatKhlo species and those which soon grow out •it a palatable condition (for example, bent and Yorkshire Fog) are tho chief contributors should bo grazed very hard. This will ■encourage white clover and maintain the sward in a condition of high palatability and .high nutritive value—although of low productivity. 10. It is better to graze fields with a (poor vegetation (for example, such as are overrun with bent or rushes) as hard as possible on an intermittent basis, than to run only a few head of stock over the field jriccssantb'. It. It. is only an exceedingly good field 'lhat will stand being managed on precisely tho rame basis yenr after year and fur aii indefinite number of years. Even "good management" long continued on the same Jilan w-ill tend to give an unsatisfactory bias to tho flora in some particular respect or another. 12. Rotational grazing should be considered from two points of view. Firstly, to ■maintain grasslands of tho farm as a whole in as high a state of productivity as possible; and secondly, to provide tho animal ■with an appropriate ration throughout as "long a grazing season as can possibly be maintained. The first need is the moro important, and is to be met by a rotation •thought out jn terms of the several fields mid over a groat number of years. The Kcooml need is a matter of fields and padlocks considered as grazing units during a particular year. 9*8784 H. MATSON and CO.