RESTORING PASTURE.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12537, 2 January 1934, Page 2

RESTORING PASTURE.

STOCK, FENCING, MANURE. In the “Taranaki Herald” Mr W. Alexander points out the possibilities of restoring pasture on land from which the bush has been burned and on which pasture has deteriorated. The degree of steepness is, of course, a factor. SLIPPING BACK. “It is the common experience of settlers on country of this nature that the pastures sown after a good clean burn do very well for a few years, then they begin, to go back until finally the good grasses die out and low fertility species and fern come in. Briefly, the reason for the retrograde movement of pastures on burnt country is this: the burning of the original bush left a substantial deposit of ash rich in mineral plant foods, particularly lime, phosphates, and potash, and for some years after sowing the grasses the clovers had this supply to draw upon. During this period the new pastures probably carried a good lot of stock, and they in turn consolidated and manured the land to the benefit of the pasture. As the supply of minerals was shortened through steady consumption by pasture plants, the high fertility species weakened and gave way to lower fertility species, a process which was repeated until finally the country found its level in the danthonia, brown top, fescues and fern which are in possession of much of the deteriorated land to-day. “To prevent this deterioration taking place it is necessary that supplies of lime and phosphates at least be applied to the burnt pastures before they start to go back—it is never just as successful after the deterioration has set in. The necessary treatment is not expensive and could easily be applied to a very large proportion of bush country now in grass. Use as> a .topdressing just a simple mixture of lime and super and the grasses you want will remain dominant. Of course a good deal of the deterioration that set in was due to the poor class of seed used on many hush burns. It is notorious that any old mixture of weeds and grasses that cannot be separated will always find a market as “special for bush burns” ; buyers would be well advised to keep off that sort of stuff, for the simple reason that if you use it vour future pasture is doomed the day you buy the seed. UNPLOUGHABLE LAND.

“The question here is how can this deteriorated pasture; be brought back? Well, the question cannot be answered just as easily as it is asked. Of course it is largely a matter of soil fertility and the first step in ~The direction of improving the sward is to build up the plant food content of the soil. Never forget, however, that the fertiliser used in the building up of fertility cannot change danthonia into ryegrass, nor bid-a-bid into white clover. Fertilisers can and do improve the feeding value of the pastures to which they are applied, so that top-dress-ed danthonia will make a better pastures than will the same grass without top-dressing. If cultivation was possible the quickest way to better pastures on the e deteriorated areas would be to plough and resow in permanent pasture species hut on most of the country concerned ploughing is out of the question. The most frhat can be hoped for is that the stock-carrying capacity can he increased to the extent that fern, can be controlled and the pastures generally cleaned up. “Top-dressing with super is likely to' prove the most efficient and most economical means of improving carrying capacity. Stock can be moved about from ridge to ridge simply hv the use of super; this fertiliser will so- influence the quality of the feed that stock will concentrate on where it lias been used. It should not be necessary to state here that complete recovery cannot be attained with one solitary dressing of about 2 cwt per acre ; each dressing applied will make for more improvement and one must be patient and not look for miracles when starting out to improve deteriorated bill pastures. A common fault on much of this deteriorated hill country is that the paddocks are far too large to permit of heavy concentration of stock. If control by means of cattle is to he successful you must be able to hold the cattle' just where you want them and this is possible only where fencing js adequate. ”