Page 26 Advertisements Column 3

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21258, 1 September 1934, Page 26

AUCTIONS. a MATSON AND CO. RULES FOR THE GRAZIER. (By Professor R. G. Stapledon,. Aberystwyth, Wales.) * V late a series of rules for the Grazier. We will at the outset, however, lay down a number of axioms. The' rules and axioms together will serve —although in a somewhat dogmatic and categorical manner—to summarise the evidences and implications which have occupied our attention in all sections dealing with grassland. Firstly, the axioms, and they are twenty-four in number:— 1. The leaf of a herbage plant is more nutritious than the stem. 2. Tieaf is nutritious in proportion as it is voting and growing fast. 3. The grasses have a higher concentration of dry matter than the clovers. 4. Pastures with a reasonable amount of white clover arc of higher feeding value than those from which white clover is totally absent or in which it is present only !>. The clovers are richer in protein and calcium than the grasses. 6 The species vary in the rapidity with which tliev deteriorate in nutritive value with the ageing of the leafage. Burned leafage is of a very low nutritive value. 7. Grasses deteriorate more rapidly than 8. Leaf is more palatable than stem, and palatability diminishes with increasing age. fi. Persistency is diminished by excessive defoliation—such treatment greatly reducing the root system of the plants. 10. Persistency is pronounced in proportion as plants have a high capacity for the production of tillers and offshoots. 11. Erect growing and early plants are at 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, as they throw up much leafage quickly after each punishment. I.':. Early and late plants in one and the same sward are not compatible—clever management must be based on this fact. 14. The management and the weather conditions at onn period influence the productivity at subsequent periods. 15. Usually a heavy hay crop is followed by a relatively light aftermath crop and vice versa. Heavy growth in the 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 the following year; excessive grazing in one year usually makes for reduced grass the following season. 16. More early Spring grass will follow a hay crop than will be forthcoming after a year of grazing. 17. Nitrogen added to a foundation of phosphatio manures gives its greatest increase in the 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 clovers when applied to a mixed nward. This is largely a result of increased overtopping, by the grasses. 19. The indigenous Btrains of grasses are more leafy and more persistent and have a greater tillering capacity than the ordinary non-indigenous strains of commerce. 20. The indigenous strains are, however, later to start growth in the Spring than the non-indigenous. Wild white clover is decidedly late to start growth in the Spring. 21. The indigenous strains are more win-ter-green than the non-indigenous. 22. The indigenous strains respond more sumptuously to nitrogen than do the non--23. The commercial Ftrains are mor crec"? growing than the indigenous, and art therefore, more sensitive to punishment l>, the grazing animal. 24. Herbs lilte the cnmmoi tieular, plantains, cat's ea others are decidedly wintergrazed to a very appreciable Winter. Many such herbs lime than the grasses. Renew your pastures with | Matson's S">"ct,ed Grasses and ! Clovers. i ""'■""'"■"'"" ! High germination and purity I j Seeds, including Red, White, j I and Subterranean Clqvers, j permanent pasture Ryegrass, ! and all Farm Seeds available | from Matson's. 12. Rotational grazing should be considered from two points of view. Firstly, to laintain grasslands of the farm as a whole a as high a state of productivity as possible; and secondly, to provide the animal with an appropriate ration throughout as long a grazing season as can possibly be maintained. The first need is the more important, and is to be met by a rotation thought out in terms of the several fields »nd over a great number of years. The second need is a matter of fields and paddocka considered as grazinj units during a particular year. M676i H. MAXSON^ani-CO,