THe Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Saturday, April 22nd, 1911. EXPERIMENTAL WORK.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXIX, Issue 5703, 22 April 1911, Page 2

THe Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Saturday, April 22nd, 1911. EXPERIMENTAL WORK.

Durino recent years a considerable amount of experimental work has been conducted throughout Great Britain to ascertain the results of manuring pasture, as shown by live-weight increase. The results have been issued in pamphlet form by the British Board of Agriculture. They may be said to show that certain well-marked types of poor pasture land may bo so improved by the uso of phosphatic manures, and especially by the application of basic slag, as to enable the land to carry a much larger head of stock than before, also that this improvement can bo carried out at a relatively small expense, and usually results in a substantial profit. While conditions here are not the same, the principle will no doubt be found to apply, and might be considered with respect to improving the grazing capacity of land in some of our older districts. Given intelligent handling of the soil, both with cultivation and pasture land, settlement and production would be enormously increased. In the British experiments basic slag applied as a single dressing at the rate of half a ton per acre generally proved most effective in improving the feeding value of the pasture, and its effects are not nearly exhausted after nine years’ use. A heavy single dressing proved more profitable than dividing the amount into two equal parts, and applying with a three years’ interval. A repeated dressing, however, had a marked effeot in some cases. The action appeared to bo more rapid in. many cases than the action of the first dose. Basic slag put on in the summer had much more effect than the same quantity applied in winter, and whethor this result is of general application can only be determined by further experiments. Where a direct comparison was made between the effects of equal quantities of phosphoric acid derived from basic slag and superphosphate respectively the former manure always produced the greater amount of live-weight increase. Potash added to a phosphatic dressing generally resulted in the production of more live-weight increase, but this increase was not a profitable one. The expediency of using potash on pastures as compared with meadows—therefore, receives no support from these experiments. The addition of moderate dressings of sulphate of ammonia or nitrate of soda to land already treated with phosphate increased the yield of herbage, but, as a rule, reduced the yield of mutton. The use of nitrogenous manures on pasture would, therefore, appear to be bad practice. Dissolved bones compared badly with basio slag and superphosphate.