DETERIORATED PASTURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19217, 5 January 1926, Page 12

DETERIORATED PASTURE.

METHODS OF IMPROVEMENT. " Scottie," who is a widely experienced Now Zealand pastoralist, writes:—An article on the management N of sheep pasture, which appeared ir> the Weeki/x News of December 17, describes the present trouble of deteriorated bushland pasture. If the land gets a clean burn and is sown about March, kept well stocked and logged up and free of second growth such as wineberry etc., it soon gets into good pasture. Neglect and doing too much at once is what causes the second-growth trouble, also bad scrubbing or a bad turn. Bad burns are caused by warit of knowledge of bush-land work. The trouble lias been that constant grazing of stock has robbed the land of what, natural plantfood it originally had. Burning off fallen bush destroys most of the humus accumulated from decayed Ifeaves, but it is the only method of getting the land grassed. Land'that has gone back and is deficient in plant food can be restored by the application of manure!! containing nitrogen, potash, phosphoric acid and lime, so that it grows good grass again. But artificial manures can only form humus and the necessary bacteria from the plants it forces to grow. If the land is free of fern, humus can bo restored by allowing clovers to grow and accumulate their vegetable matter and their bacteria Even rough, unploughable land can ibe got back to good pasture. Where fern dominates heavy sticking, with young cattle, calves, etc., of the young ■ grass , sown in March after burning, will keep the fern down well. But fencing into' suitable padlocks, ta allow the cattle available to keep the fern down, is necessary.

I see Tutira mentioned. I and Mr. Thomas Stuart sold Tutira to Mr. Guthrie Smith because we bad to, not having capital enough to carry on. It had 2000 sheep then with a winter break in the wool. The land that was sown in ryegrass was good; it had steep sides but good tops, and if all the l&nd about the North Island was as good Eis the 4000 acres between Tutira Lake and Moangiangi and Mr. McKinnon's station there would be no cause for apprehension. That was fern land; immense fern. The land there is better than a lot of other parts. Tutira had cost £28,000 for improvements before Mr. Guthrie Smith bought it. There was some land growing manuka scrub, a lot of it, that had no improvements, carrying cross-bred v,-ethers that came in with most of their wool lost on the fern and scrub. The lands that have back, want trained farmers who will experiment and find out the cheapest way to restore good pasture. Where ploughing is possible, restoration or improvement of pasture is simple enough to those who have done it before. When ploughing is impossible improvement of pasture can be effected by growing the necessary plants to produce the desired condition of fertility from the decayed vegetable matter they deposit, but it is a slow job and the question crops up: Is the future reward worth the work ? Our fathers who came here from Scotland, England and Ireland did not hesitate; they were farmers and carried out British methods with success. The story of the Scottish farmer who took a poof, run-out farm free of rent and taxes for five years, making it ah eventual success is probably worth repeating. He ploughed all he could the first year, sowed mustard which, when grown to near flowering, he ploughed in and sowed in clover, ploughing that in when grown; he sowed a crop of wheat and got a small crop of good grain. He had no artificial manure. Now we go one better and use blue lupins which accumulate nitrogen and bacteria, and the best of humus when rotted. Soil, by repeated green manuring becomes as rich as a raupo swamp. Artificial fertilisers produce a big crop of lupins which increases the manuring value and adds lasting fertile qualities which no artificial manure possesses.