IMPROVING PASTURES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14151, 10 March 1910, Page 5

IMPROVING PASTURES.

AN ELTHAM -EXPEEIiffiNT. - , H " C - Serger, of Eltliom, forrued to the "iuranaki Herald" the dm'wj n £' i 'r Jort oa , »» experiment conutted by iiim on his iarm, under the auspices of tlie Eltham branch of the ?pi Zea,^ nd Farmers' Union:— liie pasture was selected bv Air L-iapman ana myself last winter. It was me worst piece on the whole farm, and had been badly sown down about S years ago, beiore 1 c.-rme on the place. The main desire was to Sud not ir possible, whether top-dressing a pasture or this nature would renew it, or, rather, put it into first-class order. Jn my opinion, on the year's result, to tJe eye, it- ,ias tailed, although manuring has greatly improved it, I think it would be better to plough and re-sow to get the best results, and then watch carefully, and with proper handling a , T el -' little manure maintain its condition. Each plot of the experiment is onetwenueth of an acre. The manures were put on at the rata of 3cwt, to the acre at the end of Julv. and the plots fenced oft on Ist Novembc-r. Tlie grass was cut and weighed on 11th February. I was delayed in doing ibis latter operation, and as it was somewhat late much of the crop was dry," otherwise the weights would have been considerably heavier. Before cutting, Messrs Dawson, Carter and Bennett kindlv inspected the nlots. and I think I am correct in saying that they thought ; o and 6, to tlie eye. were the best ior all-round pasture, being in a sense well balanced with clovers and grass. The superphosphate (No. 4) had a great predominance of ''•owgrass. The reason why the steamed bor.e weighed I so badly was on account of the grass j on that plot particularly run out. The unmanured plot showed up rather well in my opinion, being in the corner of a very large paddock of mv farm. We did not top-dress with basic sin" as I already had a paddock of eiulit acres, half of it dressed with slag and potash, throe years ago. Unfortunately I was away for some weeks at Christ- ! mas. and no definite weights were taken. All I can say is that mv sharemilkers. who are very competent men, assert that, if anything" the onmanured four acres produced more hay than the manured portion. It must he remembered that the whole of the eight acres is of the best of the land on my farm. The grass was weighed as follows: No. I—Unmannred1 —Unmannred nlot, (rate pel" acre), 2 tons 4cwt 3ors, Ost Sib. No. 2 —Green bone (rate T>er acre\ 3 tons Orwt, 2ors. Ost. 41b. No. 3—Steamed hone (rate per acre), 1 ton lGrwt. Oqrs. Ist. 41b. No. 4 —Simemhosphate Crate per acre) 3 tons 10cwt 2qr Ost 01b. No. s—Super, and bone (half and half) (rate ner acre), 2 tons 19cwt. lqr. Ist. 101b". No. 6 —Super, and not ash (one-fiftH. j potash) (rate per acre), 3 tons 6cvrt. I Oora. Qsfc- ■ &u ~'