TOP DRESSING PASTURES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18180, 28 August 1922, Page 3

TOP DRESSING PASTURES.

>c,> _ At a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Professor Sommerville , declared that no ...;■ branch of farming afforded snch good rsturna on the money invited as could ba obtained by top dressing pasture land with phosphates. Professor'Sommerville has had experience, and was last year given control of the Imperial Government's compaign to increase agricultural production. He is such an adrent believer in the value of surface dressings of j fertilisers to grass lands that ho has • ma.de that one of £temain .features-of | hia propaganda. He has established d«monstration plots throughout the country, "« and even on the roadsides, eo>that every landholder in passing to and from may \ see what a light dusting.: of manure -(rilL ; do. It is an interesting fact that hia ; opinion applies with as much force to,the higher rainfall districts of Victoria as to Great Britain. Plots conducted by ;pux |. Agricultural Department have shown that V the carrying capacity of typical pastures I has been doubled by the application of " k lcwt. of superphosphate to the acre,- and that tha proportion of nitrogenous plants, such as the trefoils and clovers, has increased to an almost wonderful degree. Hundreds of private individuals have obtained as good, and sometimes better, ■ results. In scores of reports received from dairymen and flock masters it is shown that BaturaUy inferior pastures have been rendered good', worked out areas brought .back beyond their original luxuriance, and prolific areas so much improved that from 50 to 300 per cent, increases in carrying capacity have taken place. ; . * , ' / ' '"Inmy last ©aqperimttaV said-a farmer recently, "I used superphosphates on a 13-acre paddock in April 1319. It / had immediate effect, i& that it brought up a strong growth of clover. Ihe grasses, cocksfoots and rye,' which I had - ' sown; two yeara before 100k r half-starved, They, also, were stimulated into a quick rich growth, so that where I grazed two horses before I now run four cows and two horses.' The animals look better, and are healthier. The results were so sat- -* isfactory to me that I top dressed £0 acres in 1920 with a response that may be seen by my neighbours, /Thus, on the comparatively small patch, the carrying capacity was increased, and the stronger patch of clover may be said to have en- \ hancedf the nutritive value of the pastures, apart altogether from its increased hulk.. : "I have used "as a top dressing both superphosphate and basic phosphates, and between the two could see ao difference in the growth—the results were ' equally good. The natural clovers fp-ew abundantly, and with the grasses formed, a thick sward. Before top dressing clover was hardly visible. I think I am .safe in saying that I can carry about twice the quantity of stock in the top-di-essed - paddocks .for rat least three or four months in the spring and early summer, and that the stock is in better cendition. I puton from 100 to 1501b per a»cr© in the early spring, and in a month or two the rows of the drill easily seen, because the grass and clover along there are very much brighter, thicker!" and longer. I atn certain it would pay ' hands over fist * a dairy farmer or! way one with onlv a limited acerage to top" dress, his paddocks every year or two.