TREATMENT OF PASTURES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 64, 2 March 1929, Page 12

TREATMENT OF PASTURES

VALUE OF HARROWING. IMPORTANT AS TOP-DRESSING. Within recent years there has been a tremendous increase in the practice of harrowing pastures in New Zealand. In the dairying districts of the Dominion pasture harrowing soon will be almost as universal as the practice of top dressing the land. English experience has shown the wisdom of harrowing for very many years. In England, where the land has been longer in cultivation, there ts naturally a greater appreciation of the value of all kinds of manures, and it can truthfully be said that every scrap of manure is utilised. On grass land the chain harrows have been found to spread the droppings evenly, but more recently the advisability of more vigorously stirring up the ground has been advanced, and to-day various types of harrows that will tear up the pasture, in addition to spreading tho a.oppings find favour. Some farmers declare that harrowing is equally as important as topdressing, nii(| although this may he an exaggeration, ose can at least safely say that hairowing is very nearly as important as top-dressing, and that it will qllow for better utilisation of the manures applied. Pastures that * are regularly and thoroughly harrowed will give returns that cannot be secured from pastures not so treated.