SMALL PADDOCKS.

Matamata Record, Volume X, Issue 879, 24 November 1927, Page 6

SMALL PADDOCKS.

VALUE OF STOCK. Feed More Nourishing. The pasture and its stock-carrying capacity is greatly improved when worked in small paddocks and regularly spelled by reason of the fact that the more nourishing and tasty grasses are given a chance to survive which they do not get when sheep are continually depasturing on the land. Cattle can be grazed ahead of, instead of with tho sheep with greater profit to both cattle and pasture. Shady faces can be coped with in small paddocks and kept in a sweet condition, attractive to stock. The land can be more heavily grazed in short spells and yet does not become sick. Breeding, fattening, lambing, mustering, top-dressing, cultivation —all can be more easily and expeditiously attended to in a small paddock than in a large block, and the greatest advantage of all, the carrying capacity of the country is very considerably increased. From practical experience the writer is convinced that abundant small paddocks and good fencing are of the first importance in successful sheep farming. Farming on Better Land.

‘'lt has been found that a man cannot farm in the back country, but he must farm better on the open lanct. He must get to work and apply fertilisers to the pastures, in order to increase output.” So said Mr John Morrison at a recent meeting of the Wanganui Harbour Board when the passage of an increased tonnage of farm produce through the port was fore-shad-owed.

Mr F. Allen, also a member of the Board, and a shrewd farmer, said he was convinced that there was a great deal in what Mr Morrison had said. Most of the land was wrapped up in the question of cheap manure, and he thought they would see a great increase in the amount of produce going out of the port simply by reason <jf the decrease in the price of fertilisers.

What Lime Does. The introduction of artificial manures and the gradual increase in the cost of liming and chalking, were probably largely responsible for the falling off in the use of lime, but it should be recognised that soils may reach a state when manures cannot give a satisfactory return unless preceded or accompanied by an application of lime, chalk, or similar materials; and further, that; in spite of the most careful attention to cultivation and manuring, certain sensitive crops are quite unreliable on soils which have be come too deficient in lime. The repeated failures of such sensitive crops, which include some of the most important in ordinary rotations, often seriously restricts the choice of crops. Lime often fulfils such a number of functions in the soil that it has come to be regarded as a soil improver. Its presence tends to govern the efficacy of true fertilisers to such an extent that, as for instance in the case of sulphate of ammonia, it becomes inseparably connected with the. action of the fertiliser itself.