GRASSING RUNS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 10, Issue 632, 1 August 1866, Page 3

GRASSING RUNS.

The following, which appeared lately in the Melbourne ‘ Age,’ will interest many of our readers :—‘‘l send you a short account of the best, cheapest, and most successful mode of grassing station land wholesale, as adopted by the owner of the Otrig run, Worangi, Napier, New Zealand, which is about thirty thousand acres in extent of freehold, besides the leased portions. I, having been a resident on this establishment can vouch for the correctness of the statements. :It is well to say this run, where the work was done,- had close fern about one and a half or two -feet high, andno grass to speak much of, tbough splendid soil . The grass land was not tried. Yon know fern grows most tenaciously. Well, after the fern, in the fitting season, was burnt, the: land- was; treated b.eloW, and the- sueebtetie proper season the fern, grass, rushes, &c., were burnt off; and, previous to rain, the land was cultivated by »-species of, harrow ; the first time tearing up and open-, ing the soil, and the second . time the land, was gone over, the seed was effectually buried, so as'to leave nothing undone. If this harrow goes only once over ground, of course it will do about thirty acres in the day. A good team and a strong intelligent driver is wanted, though not too active or hurried a one. The Messrs. Howard, of Bedford, England, are the makers and inventors of the implement used, which they call flexible harrows, and certainly they are so, going into every hollow,, not leaving half an inc'i of land in their track untilled. The machine, is a Beries of metal, tripods (small) connected by steel heart-shaped links. On each side are the teeth ; the long on one, and the short on the other "side. From its being spread like a net, its action is most beautiful. It can be made to go deep or shallow at will, and has no wheels. Many articles from various makers were tried by first-class men in this lino in Britain, to got one to meet the requirement of a large New Zealand runholder then there, and, strange to say, this, the cheapest and simplest of the lot, was found the only one suited every way to -the work. In grassing land, in Victoria, might not this harrow prove of utility, and prove valuable to those needing it ? In using laboursaving things, some of out far-seeing color , nists would greatly study , their own interests, and show an example to those -badly' need?, ing it, by in a kind way overconjj.ng work-, .people’s prejudices t*> these things by mak--ing them pecuniarily interested in thesuccess of the business. This plan has been: adopted in other countries, and why should it not be here.?^-"As to "the-best sorts of grass to use, I .shal), say. .nothing, only- that most English grasses - are . burning up with the sun, and if .my judg-. ment is any good for dry high, land, if to feedisheep, particularly in summer, I,would trust most to the couch grass, indigenioua, to the Clarence Ri> er, hlew , South Wales,,;; from the fact of its- having so splendidly withstood this last drought, and also .because it beats everything for killing shrubs, &c. It would nearly if not fairly keep the thistle plague down ;-it forms too such a magnificent close thick springing sward, and grows on such wretched soil, if only loosened on the surface, and loves exposure without shade to the hot sun. I sowed some of it for trial in the refuse of sandstone cuttings left by [stone heavers, and it did well. Another reason for liking, this grass : it is so fattening and seeds so. If these lines prove of utility the wishes of the undersigned will be accomplished,— VlATOlt.”...'-