NORTHERN GUMLANDS

Northern Advocate, 14 June 1935, Page 3

NORTHERN GUMLANDS

FORMER KAURI FORESTS I . ! FAR BACK IN HISTORY, !| • i' ). I CHARACTER AND FORMATION. (I f j INTERESTING REVIEW. (By C. J. Hamblyn, B.AG.. Instructor in Agriculture.) (Second Instalment.) Many of the old ideas have gone by the board. It has been found that the gumlands are definitely not suitable for field crops. Turnips and swedes cannot be used in the process of development. Italian rye and red clover are not very satisfactory on virgin gumland. The building up of the humus by growing such crops as blue lupins and lotus hispisdus, once thought to be essential, is not really necessary. The term “pipeclay” for certain types of white gumland soils is misleading. The soils are not clays, but sandy; they are not sticky, they polish implements and can be ploughed when wet, and disced too, for that matter, if not too boggy. The surface soil is free draining. The watertable can be easily lowered on flat areas by open drains, and seepage on hill slops cut off, by ; shallow ditches across the slopes. Ploughing up and down slopes is often all that is required to get sufficient drainage to establish grass. The drainage improves rapidly as the grass roots penetrate the soil. Paspalum is remarkable in its effect on the drainage of these soils. There is, however, a cementing material present in these soils which causes a good deal of trouble. When ploughed, for instance, and left to follow in the furrow slice, which by the, way is a mistake, the soil cements as it dries and great difficulty is experienced in breaking down the clods to a reasonable size. It can be done after rain. Again, if the surface is cultivated too fine, heavy rains will cause the particles to run together and cement, preventing both moisture and air from penetrating. Gumland soils do not shrink and crack on drying but tend to set hard. . Cultivation. Although certain types of gumland where the pan formation is not pronounced have proved to be well suited to the growing of apples, grapes, tobacco, passionffuit and other intensely cultivated crops, the bulk of the dug-over gumland is being developed into dairy farms. Methods of development have varied according to the energy of the settler, his equipment, and his finances. Much of the gumland is under poor pasture, the result of mistakes and difficulties of the past. These poor pastures have in many cases responded well to top-dressing but can never amount to much because the essential grasses and clovers for a good pasture were not sown. With the introduction of artificial fertilisers and the certainty of getting good types of rye and white clover, through certification, browntop, danthonia, and the lotus species have been discarded by progressive men on gumland. Excellent pastures of perennial rye, white clover, paspalum, with cocksfoot, red clover and lotus major for variety, are being established and maintained. A method which has given quickly, and without fail, good permanent pasture on dug-over gumland at a reasonable cash expenditure is briefly as follows; —

, Standing tea-tree is cut in the summer and the area burnt off thoroughly—drains are put into boggy places — big gumholes are filled in—surface timber removed and the land is ready for the first ploughing. Ploughing either with the disc plough or short mould-board plough is done in the autumn and winter, whenever the teams can be worked. This is rough hard, work, but it can be done. The ploughed land is disced levelled as weather permits in the spring and ploughed again. It is disced and harrowed and levelled further in the early summer, the,aim being to have it practically ready for sowing by the end of December. During the summer moisture is conserved by further discing or harrowing after rains. The idea is to keep a loose cloddy surface while working the fine soil down to form the seed bed. Seeding Preparation. The land is finally got ready for seeding at ( the end of February or early March by harrowing. The seed bed below the cloddy surface will be firm, moist, and warm. ’ The seed should be sown and covered while the dust is flying, and not when the ground is wet. These conditions are best for getting the right covering for the seed without the danger of rapid setting of the surface after heavy rains. With such a preparation and early sowing, perennial rye, paspalum, cocksfoot, and white clover establish quickly and grow --rapidly. Later sowings particularly in conjunction with poor cultivation result in a poor germination, slow growth, little or no white clover and no paspalum for several years. Whereas early sown pastures have been ready to graze within four to six weeks, pastures sown a month later, have not been ready to graze until the following spring. If the preparation has been thorough and moisture conserved during the summer there is no danger whatever of the young seedlings being burnt off by subsequent dry conditions in March and April. There is this danger when the culivation is poor. The grass seed mixture may vary according to circumstances, but a good mixture would be: —25-301bs certified perennial rye, 51bs paspalum, 21bs certified white clover, made. up to 401bs per acre with cocksfoot, red clover and lotus major. Manuring and Liming. The next step in the establishment and maintenance of a good pasture is adequate manuring and liming. These soils respond remarkably well to phosphate manures, to superphosphate, to slag, and to a less extent to mineral phosphates. Without phosphatic manure neither white clover nor perennial rye will grow, but with them they thrive. Liming on these sandy soils does not show anything like the response obtained on the sticky clay soils but is still effective in conjunction with phosphates, particularly superphosphate, in improving the sward. A j practice which has given excellent re- [ suits in pasture establishment is to t apply up to lOcwt of lime to the cultivated land during the summer, three to four cwt of superphosphate or basic slag, or better still a mixture of

super and slag, with the grass seed, and a second dressing of 2 cwt per acre of superphosphate in the spring. This second dressing may seem excessive, but quick acting phosphate applied just when the clover is ready to make a move in the spring has a wonderful effect in improving the sward. A dressing of 2 cwt per acre of super | at this stage is far more effective than j double the quantity delayed until the following autumn. The actual cash outlay when the cultivation is done by the settler is much the same as for dairy pastures on other land. A satisfactory pasture can be maintained by an annual dressing of about 3cwt per acre of superphosphate with 4 to 5 cwt I of lime every few years, or by using a 1 mixture of super and slag. j (To be Concluded.) j