Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1930. NEW ZEALAND’S GRASS LANDS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 143, 16 May 1930, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1930. NEW ZEALAND’S GRASS LANDS.

“Vision and grass” are both needed, as His Excellency the Governor-General pointed out in his address to the members of the Itotary Club in Auckland, the other day, in increasing the wealth of the Dominion. There was a singular fitness in the subject upon which Lord Bledisloe chose to address the business and professional men gathered on that occasion, for His Excellency had evidently made prior inquiries into the character of the club membership, and had ascertained that “of 42 occupations represented in the club, that of the farmer, curiously enough (as ho said) was not represented.” In speaking of “the grass that grows under our feet,” Lord Bledisloe might have seemed to be descending into the most commonplace of all subjects, but he was successful in driving home the fact that the real wealth of the country comes from the grass lands of the Dominion, which represent its greatest asset, at present assessed at about £55,000,000 of exportable produce. It is not so much to the cities and towns of the Dominion that New Zealand has to look for its most valuable products. Important as the former are in their way, and necessary to the life of both urban and rural populations, they cannot produce a tithe of the wealth derived from the pastoral and dairying industries, which are at the back of the export trade of the Dominion and the mainstay of its credit abroad. Varying, or rather adding somewhat to the saying that a nation without vision must perish, His Excellency said that in the case of New Zealand he might add “and grass. Vision and grass were both essential.” As a practical farmer, with many years’ experience of agricultural and pastoral operations, Lord Bledisloe has already visioned the greatness of the opportunities lying before this country in the improvement of its pasture lands. Brief as his stay so far has been amongst us, it is evident he has satisfied himself of the latent possibilities of the future, and, as the result of inquiries and investigations made at first hand, he has expressed himself “confident that without adding to the acreage the present output could easily be more than doubled.” During the last ten years some 729,247 acres have been added to the artificially sown pasture lands of the Dominion, and the area of land under tussock and native grasses has been reduced by 760,483 acres. During the year 1928-29, 160,601

acres of land, which had not previously been cultivated, were sown down in new pastures, as against 183,669 acres in 1927-28. At the beginning of 1929 there were 16,855,512 acres under artificially sown grasses. In addition 14,131,630 acres still remained in tussock or other native grasses, making a total of 30,987,142 acres of grass land available to sheep and cattle farmers. The sown pasture lands have greatly improved under topdressing, which is coming more and more into use, 2,385,182 acres being topdressed in 1928-29, the total quantity of fertiliser used being 7,515,359 cwt, against 1,952,490 acres and 5,783,276 cwt in 1927-28. The value of topdressing for pasture lands is continually being urged by the instructors of the Department of Agriculture, and is increasingly made use of in the areas devoted more exclusively to dairying.

PERMANENT PASTURES

Lord Bledisloe urges that the grasses and clovers used should be of a permanent character, but he sounds a warning note by pointing cut that “by a process of evolution and the demands of seedsmen seeds had been selected that would produce large quantities of seeds without sufficient regard to the quality of the plant itself. The leaf it must be remembered (he says) was the valuable part of herbage and nitrogenous fertilisers used to develop the leaf should not be wasted on long spindly seed shoots.” In saying this His Excellency referred more particularly to ryegrass, “considerable quantities of which,” he said, “had been sold as perennial which were really in the nature of Italian ryegrass.” Speaking - of his English experience, Lord Bledisloe said he was satisfied that “in England, where considerable adulteration had taken place, the present output of existing holdings might easily be quadrupled, but one thing overlooked during the last 5U years in the Old Country was that grass was a crop which must be cultivated if it was to give the best results.” That remark applies also to this country. Grass must be cultivated; pastures must not be allowed to become exhausted, but should be topdressed and renewed as required. There are lands in this Dominion which never produced a blade of grass worthy of the name until after years of effort in clearing, draining, cultivating, manuring, and, in some eases, actually making the soil. Once such lands are allowed to go back and become deteriorated, they take a lot of rehabilitating before they can be made again productive. Lord Bledisloe made a passing reference at Auckland to tlie sour grass lands of New Zealand, which, he said, irrespective of tussock and other country, represented more than 17,000,600 acres, expressing the opinion that these were capable of considerable improvement in herbage when fertilisers were used. It is, however* the sown grass lands of the Dominion that are capable of producing the best results, and it. is there that the possibilities of increased production are the greatest. The Governor-General is on sound ground in urging that view, and in also impressing upon pastoralists and dairy farmers the need for selecting grasses and clovers of a permanent character, and avoiding the use of those that run too much to seed, without sufficiently developing the leaf. In his opinion “New greatest asset is her grass lands.”