IMPROVING PASTURES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21921, 3 October 1934, Page 12

IMPROVING PASTURES

GRASSLAND HUSBANDRY ./ LAND, SEED AND TREATMENT LORD BLEDISLOE'S ADVICE [BY TELEGRAPH —OWN CORRESPONDENT] I'ALMERSTON NORTH, Tuesday A comprehensive survey of problems of fodder production was given by the Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, in his address at the opening of the third conference of tho New Zealand Grassland Association to-day. Grassland he described as the main source of tho nation's wealth. "Tho herbage of our pastures is a crop, like that of our arable fields," he said, "and needs to be cultivated and managed as such. Its poor return to tho farmer in days gone by was mainly due to non-recognition of this important fact. It not only needs to be sown in a good seed bed on well drained land, but its plants require selection according to their suitability for soil, climate and animal requirements, and to be supplied, with the most appropriate plant food or iQedicine. ' Broadly speaking, the improvement of grassland is synonymous with land improvement," continued His Excellency. "The main factor in effecting this is the nature of the plants grown upon the land, and this in turn de])cnds upon the science of plant breeding. In making a pasture of the highest commercial value consistent with its soil and climate, the preparation of "the ground, the choice of seeds, and the subsequent management of the sward are alike essential factors in achieving success. Factors for Success "The best seed in the world may prove uliprofitable, if grown in a mixture which does not give it a fair chance.* As the outcome of more specialised investigation and experiment, fewer varieties of seed can now be sown with reasonable confidence that they will constitute a compact, palatable and nutritive sward. The potential output of milk and meat from the sown pastures of New Zealand can in my judgment be put conservatively—making due allowance for climate and qifality of land — at an average per acre of 60 per cent above that of Great Britain. The falsest economies that New Zealand dairy farmers can practise are the cessation or abatement of appropriate artificial fertilisation of their land in the face of soil deficiencies, and the unchecked infestation of their holdings with ragwort, gorse, and other noxious weeds." Ensilage-Making Experiments Ater describing in detail the system of making ensilage evolved by Artturi J. Virtanin, of Finland, and commonly known' as tho "A.1.V." process, His Excellency said it could hardly yet be said to have passed beyond tho experimental stage; but if it justified the expectations .formed of it, and if it bo found suited to New Zealand climatic conditions and proved to be a sound commercial proposition, it might in practice help to solve the problem of all-the-year-round butter production in this Dominion. "The paramount importance of utilising the grasslands of New Zealand to the best advantage and the advisability in doing so to study closely the commercial requirements of the Motherland are exemplified, in the first place," he said, "by the fact that grassland products form 94 per cent of the total exports of New Zealand, compared with 60 per cent in the case of Australia, 55 per cent in that of the Irish Free State, i 41 per cent -in that of South Africa, ! and 17 per cent in that of Canada; and, in the second place, by the consideration that 70 per cent of New Zealand's exports cannot at present be marketed elsewhere than in Great Britain. Insufficiency of Lime "From my own observation and inquiry in many different parts of this Dominion I am convinced that lime is insufficiently applied to much of its grassland. The fact that no obvious result is optically discernible is no criterion whatever of the necessity for its use. Few farmers in New Zealand can afford to neglect its application without risk of some appreciable reduction in the quantity or quality of their grassland products. "I warmly welcome," he concluded, "these annual colloquia of those who aro interested in the grasslands of this Dominion and who aro anxious, as progressive, far-sighted patriots, whatever be their own-angle of specialist effort or outlook, by pooling their knowledge and experience for the common good, to justify to the full Nature's bounteous endowment, and to enhance the value and advance the economic utility, of New Zealand's prolific verdure."