APPLICATIONS OF FERTILIZERS

Southland Times, Issue 23954, 21 October 1939, Page 14

APPLICATIONS OF FERTILIZERS

LATE WINTER OR EARLY SPRING On pastures in which grasses predominate applications of nitrogenous manures, such as sulphate of ammonia or nitrate of soda, gives excellent results as an early spring or late winter dressing. This early and luxuriant growth of grass is particularly valuable to dairy farmers and to producers of early fat lambs; as in both instances it encourages a flow of milk such as no other fodder will produce. Where, however, pastures are clover dominant, and the soil is, through them, supplied with abundant nitrogen, the application of these dressings does not usually give a profitable return. The application of nitrogen to clover swards results, first of all, in a suppression of the clovers, and an encouragement of the grasses, and the application of a nitrogenous dressing to clovers is thus only warranted when it is desired to balance the pasture constituents as between clovers and grasses. Most soils are very deficient in nitrogen during the winter months when clover growth is dormant, and it has been found from repeated experiment that at this time, almost any soil and pasture will benefit greatly from a top-dressing of sulphate of ammonia and superphosphate combined.