A TARANAKI CINDERELLA

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1933, Page 10 (Supplement)

A TARANAKI CINDERELLA

PASPALUM FOR COWS. SUCCESS AT KOHURATAHI. (By “Tainui.”). Paspalum is a grass not seen as often as it might be in Taranaki pastures. It does not like a wet climate, and it requires a certain amount of supervision to prevent the roots from growing into a hopelessly matted condition. It is not

generally known, however, that paspalum has been seriously experimented with as a solution to the problem of regenerating deteriorated land in the back country, and that these experiments have met with a good deal of success. On the farm of Mr. J. Gordon, of Kohuratahi, some five or six acres were sown down under. Government supervision, and with the process of grazing have developed into a first class pasture. The paspalum is situated in the paddock usually reserved by Mr. Gordon as a night feeding ground for his dairy herd, and it has been noticed that the cows will troop steadily past cocksfoot, clover and cowgrass until they reacn the paspalum area. There they will feed contentedly until dark. Mr. Gordon believes with some reason that a great deal more attention could, with profit, be given to the cultivation of this valuable grass, more especially as it combines so well with subterranean clover, the wonderful self rooting legume which so impressed Mr. Bruce Levi as adapted to the grassing of hill country in Eastern Taranaki. Subterranean clover, as it also happens, is one of the very few grasses of feeding value which can he incorporated into a paspalum pasture.