Laying Down Land to Permanent Grass.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1838, 31 May 1886, Page 3

Laying Down Land to Permanent Grass.

(Continued). Having arrived at the point of the neoes» ■ity of eliminating rye grass, it may fairly be aaked how are we to get the good grasses. I have succeeded, after much difficulty, in getting all grasses good by getting different grasses from different merchants, and when the seed was tot sufficiently good to sow, leaving it and trusting to next year ; but where it was only inferior in germinating power, I have sown an extra quantity to make np for want of this quality. i The best means of laying down land to permanent pasture has been folly and carefolly entered into l>y Mr Evetshed i t his ▼alosble paper read at the Farmer's Clnb. This ought to be carefully studied by all who intend laying down land to pasture. I have myself laid down land to almost every tilth, bat whers the seed has been good. I could never see mnel» difference in the results, except each as were accounted for by the ricboeee or poverty of the soil. Where the land was in good heart and neb, the grass grew strong and belter, and where it was poor andont of heart, it grew weaker, bat in both cases tbe grass was there. Unqnestiooably the better condition the land is in, tbe stronger tbe grass will be. It mast be decided what amount of money a person can afford, and whether be can prepare the ground expensively < r not. I have arrived at the best results by tewing tbe grass seeds with rape and mustard, and feeding them off together with lambs highly fed with artificial food. I should strongly advise all who have realty valuable land, and not too wet, to lay it down in this way. On tbe other hand, if the land is of very inferior quality, it might hardly pay for expansive cultivation, and in that ease it would be best to sow it with a thin crop of corn, and after the grass had got fully established iu tbe following snmmer, to lot sheep ran over it fed with food of high mannrial value. Tbe different habits and peculiarities of the beat permanent grasses have not been sufficiently studied, and consequently many of oar best pastures are deteriorating year by year without the owners being aware of it. The flower heads of all the beet permanent grasses are much liked and greedily eaten by stock ; consequently tbey never come to seed unless very thinly stocke 1 indeed, or a crop of hay is eat very late, whereas, on tbe other hand, tbe dower heads of tbe worthless grasses which are disliked by stock are continually and constantly seeding, each as the brome grasses, tbe soft woolly grass (Rolens lanstns), creeping rooted soft (H. mollis), barley grass (Hordenm proteose), rye grass, erseted dogs • tail, and bard fescue. These grasses generally compose too great a proportion of tbe meadow pasture from this fact, that stock do not sat their flower heads, so that tbey ripen and oast their seeds . Another cause of the pasture deteriorating is that stock, sheep especially, bave a great partiality for some grasses over others. I have watched carefully the procedure of well fed oheep when they are grazing. In the progress of my investigations I observed that tbe rams were more particular in the rejection or selsetion of the different elements in tbe posture, and I accordingly directed my attention specially to their behaviour. By tbe aid of an opera glass I have been able to make these observations without disturbing the sheep ; I have been surprised at the way in which they discriminate between two grasses, eating the leaves of theone. and rejecting those of the other, though tbey are closely intermingled as tbey grow. The better grasses are consequently cropped closely. It necessarily follows that the grasses that are rarely cropped will, from the natural sowing of their ripe seeds, in the coarse of two or three years, greatly increase, although tbey may not entirely exterminate the better ones. The great number of inferior meadows in England are doe to these two causes ; and tbe only way, in forming a new pasture to secure satisfactory results, is to sow only good grasses, which the stock will eat, and to select aneb different kinds as will supply stock with food as tbe seasons come round. Nature has provided a succession of nutritions grasses, which follow each other with wonderlot regularity in onr temperate climate, and throughout the whole spring, summer, and annum there should always be a grass in perfection in every good pasture. I have frequently seen it stated that, while stock may do well in a pasture at one period of tbe year, they fall off at another, however favourable the season may be. In some meadows sheep do remarkably well in the sprang, in others in summer, and in others again late in the aatnmn. I have invariably been able to trace the cause to the kind of grass forming the pasture, and have fonnd no explanation for it either in the soil or tbe configuration of tbe land. A meadow composed of a large percentage of foxtail is certain to produce a large quantity of early keep. The deep green coloured leaves of this grass may be observed some inches long before other grasses have began to grow. Postail, therefore, ought to be a grass for early lambs on all soils where it will grow. Unfortunately, tbe flower beads of foxtail are so greedily eaten by stock that it rarely or never bee a chance of seeding in any meadow to which stock have access ; it is, however, tbe earliest of all grasses to seed, and therefore usually sheds its seed before hay is cut Tbe erseted dogstail is a remarkable contrast to this grass. Wherever the dogstail abounds, .which it frequently does, in-100 large a proportion, tbe complaint will be beard that it does not do to lamb early, as the land will not yield early grass. It will also bo found that, where stock fatten edmirably, chiefly on this grass, about midsummer, they rapidly fall off if left in the pasture after the dogstail is ripe. Created dogstail differs from foxtail not only in being later, but also iu being a much smaller grass. Besides, its flower beads are rarely or ever eaten by stock until the seed is folly ripe, so that it steadily and continually increases both by seed and root. The halita of bard fescue and sheep s fescue arc almost identical with these of crested dogstail. It moat therefore be evident that these three grasses, although useful, should be sown in ranch less quantities than the larger or coarser grasses—meadow fescue, cocksfoot, aod catsUil, tbe flowers of which are greedily devoured by the stock in tbe same way as foxtail. Cocksfoot is by far the most valuable of all grasses because it grows in all soils ; it produces the greatest amount of keep ; it is tbe most nutritious grass, and seems to grow (aster and stronger in extremes of weather, either wet or dry, than any other grass'. There is, moreover, hardly any stage of its growth in which stock do not eat it greedily and its flower heads appear to me to be especially nutritions to all kinds of stock, young or old, in excessively wet weather. Cocksfoot has no chance of seeding, unless there is a great abundance of it and the stock are running light. Cocksfoot is often objected to, as it is said that stock pull it np by the r>o«s ; hot it will be observed that it is not tbe centre root, bat tbe side roots that are lying on the ground, cocksfoot being different from the other permanent grasses in ite growth ; it sleo shoots quicker than any other permanent gross after having been mown, and its long leaves may be invariably observed wherever it is present in a meadow after it has been mown for bay. On this account it is extremely objectionable in lawns. Timothy or eatstail commences to grow aboat ss early os cocksfoot in tbe spring, ami bean feeding off remarkably well, as it seems to produce as heavy a crop in summer after having koto led off in the early part of Hay ,a* it would have done bad it not been so fed off ; hhe eoekafoot, never allowed to eeed by sleek, end ite flower beads tie extremely when the seed is ripe, to both young er aid Hook. This grass is much objected to “I on oeeoaat of its apparent •oovaenaea, bat as all kinds of stock like it, •■•eie no tices in this objection. The after moth of uis gnus does not appear so strong ■ inwih as that of either foxtail or eoekafoot. (To be Con tin nsd).