GRASSLAND RESEARCH

Taranaki Daily News, 28 January 1933, Page 12

GRASSLAND RESEARCH

ANNUAL BANKS LECTURE. HORTICULTURAL PROBLEM. Under the auspices of the New Zealand Institute of Horticulture there is given annually a lecture known as the Banks Lecture, as recognition of the work of the celebrated botanist Sir Joseph Banks, who was attached to Captain Cook’s first expedition to New Zealand. On Wednesday night at Wellington the 1933 Banks Lecture was delivered by Mr. A. H. Cockayne, assistantdirector of the Department of Agriculture, who took as his subject Grassland Research and its Significance to Horticulture.” . , . , The lecture comprehensively reviewed the development of grassland m New Zealand, and, after detailing what science had done to improve it, made some suggestions as to what might be or J e in the future. Lantern. slides illustrating the growth of grass on experimental plots, and similar subjects, added materially to the interest of the lect ure. When Sir Joseph Banks landed in Poverty -Bay - in- 1787, remarked the lecturer, grassland, in the ordinary acceptation of the farmer, was non-existent in New Zealand. True, there were wide areas of tussock lands, particularly in the South Island; but they were not- m their primitive conditions applicable or the grazing of animals. Little could bir Joseph Banks have thought at that time that immense areas of forests, fem ana scrub-coVOred lands would be replaced, by the grasses and clovers of his own land; and certainly he could not have thought that on the very ground he landed there would be developed a ryegrass, Poverty Bay ’ Rye, of sigriificance not only to New Zealand, but to the whole Empire. GREAT POSSIBILITIES. “At the present time we have in New Zealand nearly 18,000,000 acres of sown grassland, of which 18,000,000- or 14,000,000 acres were originally forest, scrub ana fem, the rest being derived from swamp and tussock,” said Mr. Cockayne. “On this area are produced each year over 80,000,000 tons of grass, which in turn is elaborated into 300,000 tons of meat; 120,000 tons of butter; 100,000 tons of cheese and over 100,000 tons of wool, say, 600,000 tons of food and clothing, or some 30 or 401 b. of saleable material per acre.” The possibilities ahead of grassland development, added Mr. Cockayne, were apparent, particularly in the light of modem knowledge not yet put into application. The lecturer dealt in detail with the growth and maintenance of pastures, and concluded by- -remarking that in certain aspects as regards grassland farming New. Zealand was by no means the most backward of countries. WHERE NEW ZEALAND LEADS. “She leads .all others,” he said, “in the production of grass, ensilage, and its recognition as factor leading to stability of milk-producing pasture. She leads all others in the topdressing of grassland with super-phos-phate. She leads all others in the use of sodium chlorate in grassland weed destruction. She leads all others in her desire to establish permanently young milk-producing pastures, and, by no means least, she leads all others in the acreage of Government certified pedigree grass-seed. “She stands almost last in the list With regard to the amount of hay saved and the amount of supplementary crops grown per 100 acres of sown grassland, and she stands quite near the bottom in the amount of the people’s money that she spends on grassland research. What she has spent to date is already returning many fold. “There are grassland problems in plenty awaiting investigation, and their solution looks to be good business, and ample provision for their solutidn appears reasonable. I want again to emphasise that grassland farming is essentially horticultural in its outlook, and future grassland research should tend to have a more horticultural bias than it has had in the past. Pedigree strain building problems, pruning problems, feeding problems, cultivation problems, and watering problems are all horticultural ones. True it is that the term ‘grassland -farming,’ first used by me some 25 years ago to dignify a type of soil utilisation then rather despised, has come into its own and raised the plane of the art. It would not be amiss if the term were altered to ‘grassland gardening.’ ”