NEW ZEALANDS PASTURES.

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 84, 14 August 1929, Page 3

NEW ZEALANDS PASTURES.

r^ "'■'' / (By GILBERT B. HUNTEB-)

Throughout the. /world and especially in'certain .parts of the British Empire, a greater demand .for .food, clothing and the other necessities of life, i s being created by, the evergrowing population. This demand can'"only be satisfied by an in-. creaj£d productivity of the soil, or to the same thing, by the more extensive use of chemical fceriilisers, especially ni'trogenous) ones, ,fo r nitrogen is the element that is lacking in the majority ofBoila. In other words, the everincreasing population of New Zealand,, Australia, Canada, South 'Af-s i flea and other parts of the Brit-' |ah means "an ever-increas-lr^' intensity of soil Cultivation and an ev.er.-inereasing demand ,fpr,nitrogenous, plant foods. ■ Scientists have-, demonstrated to us "that ,nO t two. pibts: OS climatic ; ; to which they: that .farmers 'should employ particularly. suited to tieir' "earth conditions,'' 'and which incidentally afford the, best economic results.,. .•;.■' v

; „ EXHAUSTED TRIALS. , As it -Wa.s pointed out at the last Intewaticfflaf : Conference, "no fertiliser pan be said to be superii'tqUnotner under all circumBtanjTes/'. . Imperial-Chemical Inare lor; ■&£ reason; carryng out exhaustive trial s with ';of fertilisers in 1 all Empire,' and 'by this means; comp/iUng ; /considerable data iorAhfi "of r! farmers in all climes^,, ' „,,, . i ~ ~ ' The increasing extension of its field of. research activities has made lit necessary, rfor- 'lmperial.Chftmical 'lnduces,, %o ,-,^eeide, upon a, central station wprk can; jbe been:3ealott'alHin..Ae research sta-' iio£sotssßs&s, ?4 A :< -r ß ?W ed . on the Mouth bank of the Thames, thirty /miles - ;. v - The* jtion •'w'aa iformerlyopened by,.the r Rt.Hon:;J. H. Thomas .(Lord Privy Seal) son the "28th June, 1929. ,It, consists, of two adjoining farms— Jealott'g 'Hill, and Muptown. The former -has an r acreage of 400, of ■which 160 are, under the plough,

whlie the a^gfasilmolding, has an acreage of 76; • j It is the intention Wf the ;C.omjiany that 'Jealott's » Hill-shall become the control - station of a re-, search staff and an advisory organisation, which has the' Empire as its province. Its aim; .will be to hririg the resources of industry to supply the needs of agriculture in 'Britain and 'throughout the Empire. 7 Jealott's -Hill Research Station ''and - Experimental iFann. is fully, equipped on the most up-to-date lines" to investigate soil fertility ini /all its aspects in both temperate and tropical countries and in . rela-, tion to all crops of economic import- :. ance. ) Amongst the problems being in- . Jvestigated are: The relative effectiveness* '■ 6f* such ' fertilisers' a s sul'phate of ammonia, nitro-chalk, am'monia chloride, urea, nitrate of -lime, ammoniqm posphate and nit\rophoska; .. the. ..manorial require'ments r of arable crops; the manuring,, and, management of grassland; the,economic of manuring; animal 'nutrition; :grass preservation; and * land .improvement, ']', The t°tai flumber of plots under ■field experiments at' Jealott's Hill 'in 1929 in connection. with the above • investigations, amouots to 1204. Of / ithi s number 350 are on cereals, 256 ; on rotti<jrqps, ,547 on pasture land, -and r 61 .miscellaneous. T ; he ' '.done, at Jeatytt's' Hill ..on,,these, problems, is .being supplemented, by experimental work at ..centres .scattered over the whole British ffles .and Overseas Colonies and .Bopinjons. ' ,

JN CONJUNCTION WITH DEPART- . ;-.MENT. ( Agricultural work ,in New . Zealand is carried but in conjunction the Agricultural Department of 0e New Zealand Government. In to experiments on wheat ;and rice, an extensive series of experiments on the application of the Intensive system of grassland management in New Zealand is in progress. 'Nrtir Zealand is of. course first and foremost a pastoral country. It has been estimated that "grass is the raw material of 94 cent, of the whole exports of New Zealand." According, to" Dr. A. H. Cockayne," (Director'of the Field g Division of Agriculture, "the desire of the New

I British Research Work On Vital Points.

Zealand : dairy farmer is to make

grassland itself, self supporting ■throughout the year by increasing both.total and,seasonal production, an,d with hay and ensilage derived from the grassland .itself : to bring down to a -minimum the production of annual sown crops." In his view, the co-operation of Imperial Chemical Industries with the New Zealand Government marks what will in later year s 'be regarded as one of the historic milestones in the progress of ..New Zealand grassland farming.

At-the, beginning of. August, 1928, it will be remembered that Mr R. Lindsay Robb, of .Imperial Chemical Industries 1 Research Organisation, visited New Zealand and, placed himself: at the., disposal of the Government to investigate the intensive system of grassland management in that. country. He came home three and-a,half months,later only to return in .1929 to carry on the work begun.

• As a result .of his first visit 90 trials of the intensive system were laid , dd#n : at selected farms. ,and institutions. In Canterbury, 1&0 small-scale trials were als 0 begun. Furthermore, numerous, investigations with the following objects were inaugurated at the Marton experimental farm: -.1. To >yhat effects dif-. ferent .form;,and quantities of, nitrogenous fertilisers have on P°° r pastures of the Brown Top and on good pastures composed principally of perennial rye grass and white clover. ' i-2. To ascertain ,the .relation in ..sheep .fiqarrying .. capacity, of two ;" pastures,,.one manured with'phos•phateSTalone, and.the,other njan-_ ,ured with phosphate s .an,d nitrogen: salts, and also to discover . how the 'botanical , flora of the pastures treated reacted, to intensive ; manuring and controlled grazing.. . > ' .the value of mowing ■.. as a, means of. measuring v [the .growth, of ..pastures. ; ;4.., To .discover the period of. Y; production .as jnfluencl ed.by the time of application of superphosphate and slag applied in spring, summer, autumn and ■winter. ;

The application of intensive methods in. .d.airy farms, it .appears, will not .only increase the amount of winter feed, but .will-also add a .month to, the grazing season 4n the spring of the year. OJSES OF HITKOGEN. Jn the district of Hawera, Taranaki, 47 acres of intensively treated [ pasture,.lands .gave a profit of, 7/11 per acre, while in the New Plymouth district 40 > acres intensively managed,yielded a profit of. 17/3 per acre. These exceptionally good "rqsults .were obtained in spite of the fact that nitrogen was applied too late-rfrom.-the njiddle to, the end of .July—to, get, the. full benefits of 1 early grass. . ... 'There is.one warning,to be given in regard to,the .application of the Intensive system, that is, it is not advisable to .attempt intensive methods, on poor quality pasture—these must;.first of all be, improved by'the application of phosphates, and by controlled grazing. Otherwise, money spent, oh ,n.itrQgen is money thrown away.

■ An ; outcome of the intensive system of r grass|and . mcfinagemejit lis the desirability, pf .being.able to,preserve, .grass in-ajioj-.m suitable for feeding during the dry period of the productive season. Investigations on . gras g drying, and the alternative method of. making silage from grass is being studied at Jealott's Hill Research •. Station.

"Work : in ,1928 was .devoted to the investigation of various types of tdriers,afld, an examination of similar ~processes for the drying of shpi;t : grass. , -faa. experimental hand drier ha s been Resigned and constructed at ,Jealott:s Hill. Farm and much useful information has been obtained, „as a result. Feeding trials have also been carried out on the dried product. Digestibility experiments with some, clover dried by the Jealott's Hill Experimental plant have shown that the digestibility of the dried fodder was as high as that of fresh green clover and very much higher than that of clover hay. i According to work carried out at , Jealott's Hill it .Is likely that, the most suitable, types of .driers will be (a) a simple tray drier ,fo r use of a ; small farmer, (b) a band drier for use on a large scale. Some work has also been done at Jealott's' Hill on the compression

of dried grass. For.. small farmers this is not considered necessary. It is cheaper ,in their case t 0 stock the dried . material in a covered building. A large farmer would probably, find baling the most satisfactory, means of compression before storing. ( ;From a commercial point of view, however, compressed grass in the form of cakes is. cheaper in the long run as it. is an attractive product easy to transport. The total cost of making grass (.Honcentrate as estimated by the Jealott's HiH staff ranges between 106 ,and 127, shillings per ton. This includes depreciation but. not interest on capital. The, extra cost of brique.tting wpu)d be about 4/- per ton. , The grass drying method and the alternative method of preserving young grass the making of silage are again being thoroughly investigated this year at Jealott's Bill. It seems likely that in the near future pastoral countries like New 1 Ji-rlaland and Great Britain will have a flourishing export trade in grass (.concentrates, unless of course they Hose the lead they have already gained in grassland management.