SUPPLY OF FODDER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20668, 13 September 1930, Page 20

SUPPLY OF FODDER.

QUALITY OF THE LAND.

BUILDING UP SOIL FERTILITY.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TEXTURE.

BX H.B.T.

A great deal of money spent on expensive griss seeds is to all intents and purposes wasted in New Zealand, not because tho seeds purchased are not of high quality and the laud proporly prepared for their reception, but because tho varieti«s chosen are net suited to the class of land or the climatic conditions where they are sown. It is the ambition of moat farmers to establish perennial rye-grass and white olovftr on their country because of tho picvad early spring growth and high nutritive value of these fodders. It is, however, certain that a great many of our North Island soils aro—bocauso of their formation and not necessarily becauso of their plant food content—entirely unBuited to the growth of rye-grass and similar sbullow-rooted plants, and no amount of manuring Is likely to alter this condition.

Classification of Fodder Plants

From his experience and observation tho .writer thinks that fodder plants could most nsofully b« classified into three sections according to their suitability for yarions types of soil, i.e., tap-rooted plants, deep-rooting plants, and shallowrooting plants.

The tap-rooted varieties of both fodder plants and shrubs are especially adapted for sucessful growth on loose soils usually deficient in humus and very frequently poorly supplied with nitrogen. The taproot penetrates deeply into tho subsoil and is thus able to secure supplies of moisture from these depths which, owing to tho loose character of the surface soil, would nevor become available to purely surface-rooting plants.

Most of the tap-rooted fodder plants and shrubs are of the leguminous family, which have the peculiar ability of extracting nitrogon from the air. Further the roots of legumes act as host for various types of nitrogen gathering bacteria .which, living in nodules which they form on the roots, collect nitrogen from the soil air and fix it in tho plant's roots and tho surrounding soiL Most legumes also produce a large quantity of soft, and therefore easily decomposed leaf, hence they provide a larger quantity of humus than do any other species of plant. if therefore, a farmer proposes to lay down this typo ot land, it would be suicidal to sow a mixture of srmllowrooted grasses; his only hope of seeming abundant fodder and a permanent pasturo would be to select for his seed mixture all the tap-rooted fodder plants which would be likely to survive in tho climate where his land is situated.

Soils Requiring Deep-rooting Grasses. The next type of soil which is very common in the North Island, and foi which shallow-rooted plants are useless in the early stages of its development, is land of pumice or sandy formation which has a fair amount of humus in the top six inches or foot of soil, but has a veiy loose and porous subsoil. On this type of soil shallow-rooted plants will grow if there is an abundant rainfall, but promptly die out if subjected to a dry spell. Such land requires a mixture o? the better taprooted clovers and deep-rooted grasses, especially those such as yarrow, which has deep underground branching roots which collect a store of moisture and food to carry them over times of drought. Most of these underground creeping grasses, which include couch and bent grass, are of low nutritive value because most of the nourishment which they extract from the sunlight and air is immediately transferred to and stored in the roots. However, they are distinctly valuable on light porous soils, and play a useful part in soil building in preparation for the better grasses. Other valuable deep-rooted grasses which have not the couch habit of root growth and are consequently of higher nutritive -value are cocksfoot, ratstail, paspalum and bo on, and these, where the climate is suitable, should, with clover, form a large proportion of tho mixtures sown on light purnicy land which requires considerable solidification before capilliary action can bo produced and the moisture retained near the surface.

Shallow Boots for Heavy Land.

On heavy compact soils, shallow-rooted tolovers and grasses grow to perfection, and as these rre generally more nutritions than deep-rooted varieties it would be a mistake to sow the latter. Light porousi soils, with subsoils uf the same value can only be economically raised to rye grass and white-Uover standard by altering the nature nnd humus content of the surface soil, thereby enabling it to retain at or near the surface the soil moisture on which these shallow-rooted grasses depend. /Obviously the cheapest way of securing this alteration is to cultivate fast the deep-rooted fodder plants and (restocking the lanrl i's heavily as possible, solidify the surface soil, when (lie better shallow-rooted grasses can then be profitably introduced. Nature las provided us with valuable fodder plants for practically every typo of soil. All that is required of us is to select the varieties most suitable for the land we are grassing and then give it tho treatment which will encourage it to thrivo and beconio permanent. The man who sows grasses suitable for light, stony highlands, ori rich alluvial flnts, is no more foolish than ho who does the revvrse. Neither is likely to pet the maximum return from the lands, however he attempts to build it up by (tie nj.pli cation of artificial manures, which hr-ve little effect in improving the pnlatability of plants of naturally low nutritive value, and which cannot bo of value to tho better species in tho absence of sufficient soil moisture.