GRASSING PUMICE LANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13852, 11 September 1908, Page 6

GRASSING PUMICE LANDS.

KING COUNTRY AREAS. INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS. [BY TELEGRAPH.SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] | Wellington, Thursday. Soke weeks ago the attention of the Minister for Agriculture was drawn by Mr. Jennings, M.P.. to the fact that some interesting 0 experiment.' regarding the sowing of grass seed on pumice lands had been made by Mr. Nixon, late manager of the Pupouga Sawmilling Company at Mananui. The inspector ir charge of the Auckland district (Mr. P. Duncan), in accordance with a promise mad* by the Minister, has since made inquiries into the matter, and the results of his investigations are embodied in his report, which has been forwarded to the Department. Mr. Duncan states that on visiting Manama he found that no experiments in the «eiKe of the word had been carried on. Some 200 acres of hush, growing on pumice lands had been felled in the usual way, and burned in January and February last. Alter rain started tc fall in March, Mr. Nixon sowed an ordinary nurture of grass seed and rape in the usual way on a burn. "This was evidently a good take, he says, "as at present it is looking well, but as it i unfenced cattle and horses have access to it. and it is a good deal cut about. Being sown bo late no definite result can be given, and it remains to be seen whether' the grass will hold over a period of a year 01 two. No other experiments were tried. All along the railway line in the quarter where any bush has been burnt and grass sown, and is now protected, the young grass looks to be doing well." The report states that in the locality of MVinanui and around Taurnarunui, oa the low downs, which are all more or less of a pumice nature, clover, cocksfoot, rye, and other gratifies appeal to be spreading rapidly and doing well. "At the same time,' the inspector adds, "stock are in low condition. lam of opinion that this country can all be made useful and stockproducing. Turnips do well, and there are some fair crops of oats in a small way, but these are not largely grown. I was told tha* the potatoes were free _ from Might, but this may be because the disease has not reached those parts, rather than to anv peculiarity of the soil." Reverting to the question of the grass on the bush burn, Mr. Duncan cays: "I saw better results on the ground treated the same way at the Kaharoa Block, some 15 miles from Rotorua, in the Mangarewa Gorge direction This land is also very pumaceous. There was last season's grass, and also a grass paddock of a few years' standing. Stock grazing on the latter were in splendid condition."