SURFACE TILLAGE OF GRASS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3672, 29 July 1924, Page 12

SURFACE TILLAGE OF GRASS.

The improvement of grass lands must interest everyone who has to do with stock in New Zealand. The quality of our land is so varied, yet all is required to produce wool, meat, grain, or. dairy products per media of the soil’s covering. Arable farming is not popular, and it is essential that our pastoral and agricultural lands should be made remunerative. Just the best manner to treat grass land is a matter which will repay the closest attention. It would be unwise to blindly lime grass land or depend entirely upon one of the phosphatio manures. It may be that some of our pastures are suffering from soil poverty, necessitating the use of complete fertilisers. Or it may be possible to galvanise the tardy growth of a field of medium pasture into activity by mechanical means. It is a timehonoured practice to harrow grass lands near the homestead in early spring, ahd thus spread all “droppings.” The results of experiments carried out recently (says the Agricultural Gazette and Modern Farming) tend to show that mechanical treatment, in certain cases, can bring about a very marked improvement in the herbage. The rank growth often to be seen in pastures to-day undoubtedly accounts for many failures to achieve satisfactory results from the application of artificial manures. The finer grasses and clovers find it impossible to penetrate a thick mat of coarse vegetation, and if the best results are to be obtained on fields of this nature, it is essential that such rough growth be removed as a preliminary step in the improvement of the herbage. It is suggested that when treating old pasture with some phosphatic manure, or perhaps lime, that harrowing first with heavy tooth harrows, or, better still, “discing,” should be practised. It has been observed at Home that where this plan has been adopted the development of clovers along the “disced” lines has been excellent. We want to avoid if possible the unnecessary ploughing up of grass land and keep down the costs of farming. If by surface treatment it can be done ■arid the top-covering greatly improved, the wide use of “Nauru,” “basic slag,” “Ephos,’’ “superphosphate,” or other wellknown phosphatic manures may be well worth while. Although we have at times discountenanced the unlimited use of lime on certain types of grass land, no farmer should neglect its possibilities. An interesting experiment demonstrating the value of combined manurial and mechanical treatment has been in progress on the farm of the Harper-Adams Agricultural College since 1920- For the purpose of this trial tooth-harrows, chain-harrows, and disc-harrows were used. All the plots that received,, mechanical treatment showed up to distinct advantage when compared with those sections of the field that had not been harrowed. In particular the tooth-harrowing has produced an excellent result, and there is no doubt that the trifling cost of the treatment is negligible when the increase in the value of the pasture is considered. The use of the tooth-harrows in tearing away rough herbage has also proved of the greatest value in Wiltshire during recent years. In that county there is a vast acreage of rough grass land which was capable of improvement, and the wider use that has recently been made of the tooth-harrows in preparing the way for phosphatic fertilisers has been an important factor in achieving the good results that have lately been secured. Some further evidence is to hand in respect to results obtained at the Sparsholt Agricultural Institute, near Winchester, in connection with comparatively newly-sown grass land. At Sparsholt a field of 12 acres was sown with a permanent mixture in 1920. In the following year it was cut for hay, and in the spring of 1922 dressings of basic slag and kainit were applied. Although by these means a fair herbage had been established, it was decided to try the effect of disc-harrowing a portion of the field. On completion of the operation this part of the field had almost the appearance of arable land. Rolling followed the discharrowing. The treatment has produced an excellent result, the herbage giving the impression of having been established for many years. The success of this experiment induced the authorities at Sparsholt to treat the remainder of the field in a

similar manner, and this second test promises to produce equally satisfactory results. The combined action of the discharrow and roller seems to have worked well, and no material damage was done to the young plants by the mechanical treatment. Generally one views the possibilities of surface treatment of pasture along with top-dressing as likely to make for more efficient management of grass land than has hitherto been customary. It is common-sense farming.