Laying Down Land to Permanent Grass.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1825, 28 April 1886, Page 3

Laying Down Land to Permanent Grass.

Tbu far I have examined the trade pamphlet* oI aaed merchants I will now refer to worka containing the regatta of investigaticoa by practical and scientific men uncouMoted with the seed trade.

The beat book, in my judgment, for practical knowledge respecting cultivation of grace it Sinclair's ‘ Flortus Griuiiuena Woborneneii, in which lii-‘ in -at exact information can be found in regard to all our grasses ; and aithoogh the scientific expert men la made Sir Humphrey Davy as to the trading properties of the different grasses may be considered antiquated and deficient in the minute analyse* with which we are familiar is our daya, they nevertheless afford a fair indication of the relative value of the grasses, and may, I believe, be trusted in determining oar (election of seeds. Some of the state menu respecting the value of different graicne by Sinclair are so astonishing that on* may well hesitate to believe them, yet so accurate were hia observation a and ao careful hia experiments that I cann t discredit them without the strongest evidence. The statement that appears most open to objection and the moet difficult to believe is, perhaps the following —" Let the produce and nutritive powers of rye grass be compared with Ihooe of the cocksfoot grass, and it will be lonnd inferior in the proportion of nearly 5 to Id, and also inferior to meadow foxtail in the proportion of .5 to 12, and inferior to the meadow league in the proportion of 5 to 17. In theee comparisons, from which the above proportions arose, it was necessary to omit the eeed crops for the truth of comparison." -(P315) My own experience convinces me that these proportionate estimates of Sinclair's are correct. Donaldson, however, in hia work on grasses, on page 2bl. says, “ the results shove quoted will be received with much caution as practice in a great measure reverses them. No practical man will be convinced that (rye or) ray grass is inferior to cocksfoot, as 5 to Id in any one respect, the latter being e very coarse grass and until tor hay on any good lands, and chiefly adapted lor paatarage on inferior soils." While Donaldson thus aete aside Sinclair's compaialive value of cocksfoot and rye grass, be appean to accept the comparative values given by Sinclair of other grasses. Bat if Sinclair is correct in the majority of cases, whv should be be in error in this one, more especially as it is apparent throughout hia whole book that be started and continued bis experiments unbiassed by prejudice' I most add that Donaldson, in hu list of seeds, gives e smaller proportion of rye grass and a larger proportion of cocksfoot than moet writers on the subject.

I would next refer to Hie article of the late Mr T. Carrington (• Journ.' Hoy Agric. Soc., vol. it. p 490), than whose opinion there are few more valuable, be says .— ■■ f.o person who hte not bad experience will appreciate fully the difficulty and tediousness of the operation of converting into really good turf, poor itrong land which baa been constantly under the plough for generations, and in which every bit of vegetable matter baa been used np by the practice of having periodical dead laliova dressed with lime.”

I can tally endorse what Mr Carrington •aye. although I bare never had to deal with land treated iu the way Le mentions. 1 have, nevertheless, bad to deal with land ixtremely exhausted, but the difficulty with such land since I gave np sowing rye grass has been greatly lessened, although, notwithstanding high feeding with decoiticated co'tun cake, it atili takes a long time when the Uni is exhausted to make it rich enough to grow gras*. Bat tnr experience has proved that when land will not grow grass it will not grow grain crops either, unles-a the land intended for pasture is treated in the same way aa it would be for corn, that is, by fallowing or mannnng. In the list of seeds given by Mr Carrington, nearly one-filth is rye grass (one third of this quantity being Italian rye grass), and neatly two-fifths clovers and rib grass, so that only two-tilths consisted of perennial grasses lof which quantity little more than one-third was made np of the better grasses). lam satisfied that nothing but his liberal nse of decorticated cotton cake and his laying the grass down with rape, could have caused the small quantity of permanent grass seed si to tiller out as to make his splendid new pastures. It is ebvions from Mr Carrington's article that he farmed hit pastures, and would not leave Jhem to nature, as most people do.

Mr James Howard, Ml', ,n his report on laying down land to grass Jonru.' Roy. 80c.. toI. xtl). does Dot ia any way L-entim what aaed be uses, and I therefore conclude that ha baa not paid much attention to the properties of different grasses. He says that in his brst experience his pastures began to fail after three or four years, and never until tha tenth year were the grasses well est&hliabed, and he came to the conclusion that there was much truth in the Suffolk couplet, “ To break a pasture will make a man, To make a pasture will break a man "

He then tried inoculation, which seemed to •noeeed, end this be pata down to the superiority of the farming. I should consider it rather as fine to hia having aaed turf containing permanent grasses.

He then attempted to lay down pasture with sainfoin, and says, " that as the sainfoin began to die out indigenous grasses b> yin to maks tbsir appearance ” (p 4117). Mr Howard vonld bare added not a little to the value of bis article it be bad inform, j us of the names of these grasses, so that we might judge of their ralne for stock. Further 00 he leys, “ I laid down land with lucerne, and from the beautiful carpet of green my field presents (hie spring 1 have every reason so far to be satisfied with the experiment.” 1 bare not seen Mr Howard s newly formed pasture, bat my experience would lead me to balm* that .the bulk of the grass which has sprung up with the lucerne is probably rough meadow grass and annual meadow grass or Suffolk grsss (Poa annua), ana if 1 am correct m my supposition, although good for ■took at certain periods of the year when the lDcernedMS.it wnl be found ijuite inadequate to form a pasture. My own experience coincides with that of Mr Howard thus far, that where land can be sown down without a corn crop it is preferable. Mr Howard seems to lake it for granted that always after three or four years the grass must deteriorate, but hare again be does not give us any information aa to the species of grass which disappear.

To be Continued I