Permanent and Temporary Pastures (Martin J. Sutton).

Otago Witness, Issue 181, 6 August 1886, Page 16

Permanent and Temporary Pastures (Martin J. Sutton).

Editor Witness, — This work is a handsome book, well printed on good paper, and neatly bound in cloth. Its value is greatly increased by the addition of twenty-three beautifullyexecuted and highly -coloured chromo-litho-graphs representing the principal pasture grasses and clovers, which are accompanied (with one or two exceptions) by botanical descriptions and analyses of the various grasses, both dried and in a fresh state, showing at a glance their relative 1 importance as fodder plants. The book forms both an ornamental and a practical guide, and every farmer will do well to possess it and carefully read and study the various subjects treated of in its pages, such as the preparation of the soil and the selection of grasses according to the nature of the soil and the situation of the land, which are the principal considerations in laying down pasture land in connection with the question as to whether the pasture is to be temporary or permanent. There is, however, one paragraph in the book with which I cannot agree, and which shows how even a practical man of great experience may be misled. At pages 23 and 24, in speaking of the Poa and Holcus grasses, Mr Sutton says that Poa pratensis is the couch of the country and the scourge of the land, and is avoided as carefully as is Yorkshire fog (Holcus lanatus) in England. He also says that some large flockmasters from New Zealand assured him that the Yorkshire fog was greatly valued and regarded as a fairly nourishing grass in New Zealand. I imagine that very few flockmasters or runholders in New Zealand would be so far misled by the bulk and show of the Yorkshire fog standing in his pastures, untouched by his flocks or herds while a blade of any other grass was to be found, as to regard it of any value. I am sure that if the flockmaster made the mistake, his flocks would not prefer the Yorkshire fog to Poa pratensis, for in this grass we have both an early and a highly nutritious pasture that is greedily devoured by every animal that eats grass ; whereas, on the other hand, the Yorkshire fog has no merits either for pasture or hay, as cattle of every kind appear to dislike it, this being especially the case with horses, both leaves and flower remaining untouched in the pasture when other grasses are cropped all round. I can assure Mr Sutton that this is my experience, at least in the South Island of New Zealand, for close on thirty years, as well as a little over that period in the Old Country ; and it is my opinion that if we had only one-half the quantity of Poa pratensis in this country that we have of Yorkshire fog, it would be a blessing to the runholders and their flocks instead of a scourge. — Yours, &c., Paturin De Pres.

August 3.