FARM PASTURES AND THEIR MANAGEMENT.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 369, 27 June 1884, Page 5

FARM PASTURES AND THEIR MANAGEMENT.

The' Australasian' in dealing lately with this subject made reference incidentally to the dosirabilitj 1 - of subdividing the pastures into sets, each comprising three or four paddocks, one paddock only o£ each set to be stocked i\t any one time,, the stock being remqyejcl to a fresh paddock at intervals adapter! to the season of the year 'ancLtlie growt^i of the herbage. It will, probably be observed by some farmers that they : hav!o always pursued this plan; that .they never stock all their pastures at once, unless feed becomes so short that they are compelled to do so. With these it is hardly necessary to- continue the discussion. It may, however,, be observed that assuming that the pastures are really good the paddocks must be either too few or the number of stock too large, fora thorough husbandman shoutd never be caught unprepared for a dry or bad season. In order that the pastures may carry their alloted head of stock' throughout the whole year, certain stacks of rough hay should be built at convenient intervals on the farm, ttyo stock being kept from thcni by f cueing The shifts would be at intervals of from seven to fourteen days, according' to the season of the year, the most frequent shifts being made in the spring, when growth is rapid. When the set of paddocks consist of four, it is possible at' that season to allow one to remain un-' stocked until many of the grasses haj r e seeded. It maybe possible a}so at [a later period to allow another of the pa'Adocks to ripen seed in sufficient quantity to maintain, a thick sble of <■ grass: In some instances a portion of the qfop may be cut, and the seed -be sown over tie other paddocks" before the autumn rain's. As the' whole object in ''subdividing the. pastures and allowing them to- seed is jfco produce and conserve a thick sole of grass, attention will be paid to the season of year at which the grasses go to seed. In the absence of any sueh 1 attention, certainjgrasses are apt to disappear,eitlier through being eaten out, or through dying out naturally. It will be noticed that pastures of native grasses consist oi a much larger number of species than pastures of sown grasses, and that those grasses bloom at different seasons of the year. Unless, therefore, a native grass paddock is allowed a whole summer to recruit every second or third year, many of the grasses will bo apt to die out. JN ative pastures cannot be kept up by sowing as can those of English grassbs, because seed is not obtainable for tliat purpose. This ,systom of maintaining pastures in a efficient state is by soine deemed needlessly troublesome '; But there is' really 'nothing moro simple! or easy where .English grasses are concerned. As regards native pastures,: it may be admitted that no one has s^ic.peededbyany system of rotative stocking in preserving all the species of gr|ss they originally contained; spine afnd

generally a great many of the least vigorous and of the best quality, invariably disappear when stocked for any considerable length of time. The

foregoing suggestions apply as a matter of course to what are known as permanent pastures, or pastures intended to lie down for six or seven years. To allow them to become thin and therefore unprofitable after two or three years is obviously bad management A very common remark goes to the effect that a pasture having become thm is to be broken up for a gram crop. For the purpose of breaking up a thicker sole •would be vastly better from every point of view ; it would not only furnish a larger proportion of vegetable matter to the soil, but as it would also hare been more heavily manured by the stock (for flip TtinmivP i<« in nrrmnrHrm +o Vl 1o wie manure is in proportion to tlie amount of feed), thoU would natur ally be in better condition than when it iiad. gradually became nearly bare, and had therefore carried hardly any stock, " The more corn, the more stock ; the more stock, the more corn," is as true of pastures as of arable farming in Great Britain, in some parts of whicli the sayme is proverbial. Since the first notice of this subject appeared, 'the value and great utility of lucerne in the warm fei 60 * IQUl QU i eenSlandll 'T +1 been att r? 6d by some who have proved those qualities, Lucerne has been used there for grazing with the greatest success, and as it has also continued to prove a heathful pasturage, it may with the greater confidence be recommended for the general use, and that not only upon farms To suggest that any steps should betaken to inoculate station properties with such a plant as lucerne woulJ be regarded by many as rank heresy ; it has, neverthele<?s, been done m more than one instance in JN"ew South Wales, and success never fails to find followers. The well-known prairie grass also has takena strong hold of several -pastoral properties in that colonj^, and is regarded by their owners as a most valuable feed Afc the seasons when native grasses are at their best they arc preferrjd, but they no sooner get > short than the stock attacks thaprame grass greedily, and as its growth is quite_ rank under favor- in able conditions, it, in country to which it has taken well, will carry a large head of stock. The value of what are called fodder creps, when fed off the ground in s raising the crop bearing capability o of the soil is shown in the English system of feeding off tur™J2 or,^ io-^ -v 1 uP r. i nips, and hay by sheep between hurdles, - and m the practice fairly common m somfe parts of JNew South Wales of feeding off crops of maize by allowing pigs to help themselves. In such cases, the heavier the crop the greater amount of fertilising matter is retiirned to the soil, Instances have been recorded in these columns of land which at first yielded only some 30 bushels of maize per acre having yielded after several crops had wU«« tLi \ ~*e f ■ nr\ i. on. -L r: i i been fed off from 70 to 80 bushels, and < even higher per acre. All these ex- the ampies point to the importance of mamtaining a heavy sole of grass even when the land is intended to be broken up for grain growing. Thus in whatever directionwelook for instruction " the same evidence is forthcoming. Grazing, and that of a firstclass description, 'should lia bV'regarded, not only as the foundation oPsuccessful farming, but as also fche mainstay of grain growing ; in- the absence, as we lately observed, of a system ■ ot husbandry based on pasturage, grain O growing would rapidly exhaust the soil, and thus bring iiiih "both upon the land and on the occupier, i of