FARM and STATION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19698, 2 August 1938, Page 13

FARM and STATION

BY "THE GLEANER"

FENCING TO SOIL TYPE

SUBDIVIDING FARMS VARYING TYPES OF LAND Many farms in New Zealand cover several different types of soil, each of which requires special treatment if the best results are to be obtained. This special treatment can be given only when each field contains a single soil type, and this should be borne in mind when planting the sub-division of. a farm which is composed of various soil types. It is essential, therefore, that fencing to soil type should be carried out as far as practicable. This applies to contour as well, for really the type of soil always changes with the changing slope. In subdividing flat areas, sandy soils are sometimes unnecessarily included in the same field as clay soils. In the summer, when the clay fiats will stand grazing, the sandy areas are burnt out and should be spelled, whereas in winter the sandy areas cannot be grazed because the clays become wet and poach badly. Peats and volcanic soils arc often fenced with clays, and here again the same trouble is experienced. Clay flats are the complement of the hill soils: each grows feed when the other is not producing. Conseouently, the intensive grazing reouired to manage the portion of the flat has proved too much for the hill portion of the field. Raoid deterioration has taken place on the hill portion, with erosion exposing patches of subsoil over the whole area. When managed as a Mil pasture should be, no. deterioration of the sward, takes place.—F. B. Olanville. Instructor of Agriculture. Whnnparei, in the Journal of Agriculture.