PASTURES AND CROPS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 4 August 1925, Page 7

PASTURES AND CROPS.

A DDR KvSS BY AIR. J. AY. DEEAI. ‘‘S|>eaking at the end of the annual meeting of the Stratford Demonstration Farm on the subject of pas- . Deem said: — PASTURES. •The pastures on this farm continue co do well under careful management and top-dressing; lie'ds two and three being a very line example. These two iiekU were" pn L down hurriedly m November, 11)18 in a semi-temporary pasture with the intention of resowing m three or four years, but the fields have done so well that they are being continued lor the present. ihe same app ies to other pastures on the .arm. and up to the present it lias not been found necessary to resow. Ihe field in which a heavy clover crop was turned under being especially ls°od-‘-jt has been found that about 42luS of seed gives fine results, and the best pastures were sown with the following mixture:—l2 *bs cocksfoot, 16 lbs perennial rye, 4 lbs Italian rye, 3 lbs Timothy, 2 lbs dogstail, 3 lbs cowg.rass and 2 lbs white c ! over, giving a total ~f 4b lbs per acre. Prairie grass liar been tested, but the amount ot feed nroduced from it so far does not wariant its inclusion in the mixtures. Danish. Akaroa and local cocksfoot have been tried for comparison purposes, but in to the present there has been no noticeable difference in the amount ot feed in the different sowings. In white clover, colonial and imported wild white has been tested against against ordinary imported white. the latter grows well for the first season, hut appears to thin out after one year whereas the wild varieties spread out ’ and thicken, and so far the colonial white has been superior to the imported wild white. Llie system of d'-ifling in one lb of buda kaleseed about the middle of November, then rolling with the Cambridge roller and sowing the grass seed on the rolled surface and covering with harrows, lias given the best results on this farm. TOP-DRESSING.

’“Various manures have been tested. and experience up to the present shows that the only manures that pay to use are pliosphatic manures, and of these basic slag, basic super and mixtures of lime and super continue to o-ive the best results in the order named As a standard dressing, slag lias been used tor the past four years and continues to give very -excellent results. Last season kaiuit was tiled with the slag on two different fields, but so far there has been no noticeable difference in the pastures, and the stock have not shown any prelerence for. the area treated with kainit. The system followed on this farm is to top-dress with 3 ewt of slag the first year and follow this up 'with 2 cwt per year afterwards. Kainit is being further tested this year, also super. basic super, bonemeal. and Nauru against slag. ROUT CROPS.

'■These have consisted of turnips, swedes, mangolds and carrots; various varieties being tested from time to time ais ,thc<y becsome available, in turnips, Lincolnshire Red, Red Paragon, imperial and Hardy Green Globe continue to give the best results, although some other varieties have done quite well. Swede results have been a bit mixed owing to the ravages or dry rot. Tins \ear there has been very little rot. Of" the standard varieties, Grandmaster, Monarch and Superlative have given the best results. No Vilmorin seed was available this year. Alangoids.—Prizewinner,, Red Inter, mediate and white Sugar, have done best* in the other named. Of th e new (valriieties 1 .Rested, Orange Globe and AVliite Knight have done well, the former being the heaviest crop on the farm this year. In carrots, Matchless White continues to produce the heaviest crop. The following are the average weights of root crop per acre for the past seven years, this year’s results being shown in parenthesis: Alangoids 45 tons 9 cwt (47 tons 8 cwt). Swedes 43 tons 4 cwt (38 tons 11 cwt). Carrots 36 tons 8 cwt (41 tons 12 cwt). Turnips 41 tons 2 cwt (42 tons - 1 cwt). “Three cawe per acre of basic super has given the best average results for swedes and turnips, and a mixture of 3 parts superphosphate, 1 part steamed bone meal, and 1 part 1 eplios at the rate of 5 cwt plus 2 cwt kainit or 3 cwt salt per acre has giventhe best results for mangolds, and the same mixture less the salt and kainit at the rate of 4 cwt per acre for carrots. Nitrogen manures have been test, ed from time to time, but the results have not warranted their use.

GRKF.Y CROPS. “Three cwt per aera of basic super oats and tares for feeding off and hay, and the testing of pea crops for summer feeding to take the place of turnips Last year’s mangold land tvas sown in three varieties of peas on October 29th. These were weighed on January 22nd and gave the following weights of green succulent material which was relished by sows: —Canadian Crass Pea, 10 tons 9 cwt; Earlv Minto Pea, 11 tons 17 cwt; Grav Partridge, 12 tons 4 cwt. “Portions of the two crops were saved for pig feeding and ripened fairly well. Small quantities of kales and chon moullier have been grown from time to time with good results. This year an acre of chon moullier sown on November oth was partly fed in Mav, but a portion was left standing right through and is now in splendid feeding condition and would, to a great extent, take the place of swedes. This crop is not immune from club root, hut lias great powers of resistance and may he grown successfully where most crops of the turnip or kale varieties would fail. ltjcerne. “This small trial has been continued, and, although the crop has done fairly well, the lesults are not sufficiently outstanding to warrant it being grown on a large scale at Stratford. DAIRY HERD. The returns from the herd both per acre and per cow is being gradually increased. This lias been brought about by a certain amount of culling combined with carelul handling anti better feeding. There is no question but that the feeding accounts for the major portion tof The increased returns. The figures are; — Year Butterfat Butteri'at per cow per acre 1919-20 221.101 b 00.81 b 1923-24 305.01 b 108.91 b 1 1924-25 327.51 b 121.31 b PIGS. The value of the Tainworth-Berkshir e cross being recognised for bacon purposes. Three Tamworth sows were procured last year and crossed with a purebred Berkshire hoar. During the present season a good number og the progeny of this cross has been sold to farmers for breeding purposes. Re-

cently a Tamworth hoar was secured, and during the coming season a limited number of purebred Tamworths will he available for disposal among farmers.’’