PERMANENT PASTURE.

Western Star, Issue 374, 21 August 1880, Page 7 (Supplement)

PERMANENT PASTURE.

[The following paper (here abridged), was prepared by Messrs James Carter and Co., of High Holborn, London.] To begin with, let us look at the advantages of grass land over arable land. In the first place, you do not require so much capital to work it, fewer hands, horses, and Implements being needed. In the next place, you are not so much at the mercy of the season. There are very few lands you you can plough while it is raining, hut if ' you have only stock to look to, and the ■weather becomes so wet that you are afraid they will poach your rich grass lands, you have only to turn them on to the higher lands, where they will poach less and lie drier. It is also easy to have enough shelter in the way of shedding and hedging. Some of you may say, in reply to this, we have lost a great many sheep this year with liver rot, broughfon by the ' wet season. We would ask those gentlemen whether they kept their sheep on well-drained land, and gave them a bit of cake or hay and good lump of rock salt to lick, and we should be surprised if their answer was in the affirmative. Again, Imagine a field of cut corn and a field of hay both washed away by the rain ; in one case you have nothing to look at but a stubble, and that, perhaps, a foul one ; hut let it be as clear as it may, you must expend several pounds per acre upon it before you can get anything out of it; whilst, on the other hand, you have only to wait, remembering that the rain which has washed away your hay will also bring on the aftermath. Or even, suppose the corn and hay to be well got into the rick, observe the labor requisite in threshing the corn before anything can be done with it, and, on the other hand, how little prepara- • tion is necessary before the hay can be used on the farm or taken to market. Another advantage is that we can grow more meat; and depend upon it that good <; English meat will always fetch a good t - price, v . We will now consider the physical con- /, ditions necessary to maintain the best kinds

of grasses in a permanent state, and we think they are these:—That the land should be of such a texture as not to part with moisture too rapidly nor hold it too long ; and we find these conditions best fulfilled with a fair depth of mould resting upon a well drained clay subsoil. The most valuable kinds of grasses can best be kept in a permanent state by good cultivation, which, of course, includes sufficient draining and iudicious manuring. But the wetter and poorer the land is allowed to become, the more worthless will be the vegetation upon it. All this seems very simple, and yet we are often asked, How do you account for the ill-condition of such a meadow 1 and so on ; and we generally find that draining and manuring (or, rather, the want of them) will explain the whole mystery. PREPARATION". For all crops we know how desirable is a fine tilth, but for no crop is this more necessary than for grass. The roots being so very minute, and some of them not going very far in search of food, their feeding ground must be thoroughly well prepared by. disintegration.' Without going" into details of draining and its good effects, we will simply say that it is & most necessary part of the preparation of the land for permanent pasture, and in no other ease will its good effects be more manifest. It is quile a mistaken idea, held by a good many that draining is of little or no use to grass land; on the contrary, it is a well-ascertained fact that, the most valuable kinds of grasses will not thrive on insufficiently drained land ; all kinds of stock, too, will thrive better on drained land, having drier ground to lie upon, and sweeter, more nutritious herbage. Manure also gives better results upon drained than upon undrained land. The land should be clean and in good heartland we cannot combine these important points more perfectly than by recommending feeding a crop of swedes on the land and sowing the grass seeds on a fine tilth, with the aid ot the cultivator in preference to the plough. Another point tor consideration under this head is. whether we shall sow grass seeds with a corn crop or not. Now the advantages put forward as pertaining to the praclice of sawing with a crop are, that the com is a protection to the young grass, and that it will repay apart of the expense of putting in the grass seeds. With regard to the shelter afforded to the young gras? by the corn, there may be little in it; but if the grass seed is sown in March or April, we think there will be much need of shelter; and as to the idea that the corn will repay a part of the expense, how often have we heard the remark during the last few years that corn does not pay, and yet we are to take a crop ot corn, which does not pay, from the land we have prepared for the grass, which does pay. One of the essential points in laying land down to grass is that it should be in good heart, and yet, having put the grass down in good condition, the first thing we do is to begin to take the heart out of it again with a corn crop. This seems against all reason,and theargument is strengthened by the fact that corn and grass belong to the same natural order, and, being similar in composition, extract the same substance in the shape of plant food, so that no crop is better adapted to rob the grass than a corn crop. It has been suggested by some that the loss of condition caused by removing the corn crop may be replaced by manure, but in the present state of things we should not advise a farmer to run the risk of spoiling his grass for the sake of a lowpriced crop of corn. We shall therefore give our decision in favor of laying down without a crop, of course excepting special case*. SEEDING. We now come to a very important point in our srih|eto£,“ namely, seeding, under which heading we shall include the selection and sowing of seeds. The varieties we recommend for permanent pasture are the following ; —Alopecurus pratensis (meadow fox-tail), Anthoxanthura odoratum (sweet vernal), Agrostis stolonifera (creeping bent), Avena flavescens (yellow oat-grass, Cynosurus cristatus (crested dogs-tail), Dactylis glomerata (cocksfoot), Festuca duriuscula (hard fescue), Festuca elatior(tall fescue), Festuca gigautea (giant fescue), Festuca heterophylia (variousleaved fescue), Festuca pratensis (meadow fescue), Festuca ovina (sheep’s fescue), Festuca rubra (reddish fescue), Festuca tenuifolia (fine-leaved fescue), Festuca loliacea (darnel-leaved fescue), Glyceria aquatic (water sweet grass), Lolium italicum Carter! (Carter’s superfine Italian rye-grass), Lolium perenne Paceyanum (Pacey’s perennial rye-grass), Lolium perenne sempervirens (evergreen ryegrass), Phleum pratensis (timothy), Poa pratensis (smooth-stalked meadow grass), Poa trivialis (rough-stalked meadow grass), Poa nemoralis (wood meadow grass), Poa sempervirens (evergreen meadow grass), &c. A well-constituted mixture for permanent pasture should contain many varieties of grasses and clovers, for several reasons. We find some varieties will thrive beat in

one season, others in another season. Some varieties extract from the soil plant tood which would not he utilised by other varieties. Some mature earlier than others, and stock of all kinds do better on a mixture of foods than when fed continually upon the same thing. So that a well-mixed pasture has the advantage of being earlier, lasting longer, and giving a heavier and better feed than one comped entirely of a few or a single variety of grass. With regard to the time of sowing, August has been suggested by some as the best time for sowing grass seeds, and the reason given is that most of the seeds are ripe then Nature would choose that time for the purpose. But we cannot say why this rule should stand good with regard to grass seeds any more than with other seeds. There is surely more seed sown in the early part of the year. We should then suggest that the early part of the year be chosen for seeding, and our experience is that March and April are generally the best months. But as we do not always get the same sort of weather in one particular month every year, we cannot lay down a fixed rule, but everyone must use his own judgment, remembering that a dry time for seeding, followed by moist warm weather, if we can manage to arrange our work so exactly, is sure to he followed by the best results. Jf, however, it is thought expedient to sow in August, it should be remembered that slugs and frost may probably destroy part of the clovers, so that it will be well to examine the pastures in the spring, and if necessary sow more clover seed. With regard to the quantity of seed sown, as a rule we do not think this is sufficiently liberal, and after all the first expense would not be muqh increased, especially in proportion to the increased good results. The object in laying down land is to get a good close sward as quickly as possible, both because the yield is larger and weeds are more effectually kept do ,w n. With regard to a certain piece of turf with which we had to do about two years ago, in a prominent public position, we were frequently asked how it was that we had managed to get it so close in such a short space of time, some remarking that they would give anything for a piece of turf like it, and it was difficult to get some to believe that it had been produced by seeding only a few months before. We could only assure them in reply that there was no secret about it, for we had only laid it down as grass should be laid down, namely, in the fine tilth, good heart, and liberal seeding; . The most material points in which our treatment differed from the ordinary method, being in the quantity of seed used and the adaptation of the seed to the peculiar formation of the soil. In sowing we eannot too strongly urge the necessity of covering the ground evenly, every blank giving a chance for weeds to make their appearance, and these should therefore be re-sown as soon as noted. Here we see another advantage of sowing without a crop, for we find when this is not the case, the places are invariably neglected. Sowing is best effected with the seed-harrow, on a calm day, the light seed-harrow, chain-harrow, bush-harrow, horse-rake, or Cambridge roller being used to cover the seeds, the implements varying with the description of soil, and unless where the Cambridge roller is used a heavy flat roller finishing the operation. Where the land is very loose, we recommend Crosskill’s roller, followed by the bushharrow. When we remember that from inch to f inch is the depth at which the largest percentage of grass seeds germinate, great care should be taken not to bury them too deeply. RENOVATING. Another important point for consideration is the renovation of grass lands. Suppose, for instance, a piece of grass land has become mossy and foggy, and requires a little seed properly put in to restore it to its former freshness, we should recommend the following plan. Put the heavy .harrows over the ground in different directions until all the moss and rough herbage has been loosened ; collect this with a horse-rake and remove it, give a liberal dressing of a good compost, such as earth and lime, drill the seeds in, weighting the coulter well, and finish off with the roller. Possibly this plan is adopted by many, and may be known to all of you ; but, as we are frequently asked how to put in the renovating mixture, it has occured to us that some difficulty is experienced on the subject, and so we take this opportunity of suggesting a method. # We have heard of another plan, namely, that of penning sheep very closely for a night over the newly-sown seed, and we are informed this answers very well, and no doubt where there is onl}’ a small quantity of land to go over and no moss to get rid of, it may answer well; but for a large breadth of lauds, or where there is moss, we should advocate the method first described. Of course it will be advisable to attend to manuring after this operation, to render the good effects more lasting. method for getting rid of moss

is by penning sheep fed with swedes, cake, or corn, regularly over the field. These methods will only apply where the moss is due to want of fertility, but in addition to this, should the land be damp, draining will have to be the first part of the treatment. It is not always possible to renovate pastures. When they become hide-bound, for instance, it will be more expedient to break them up, which is best done bv paring and burning. A crop of roots should then be taken, and the land ceded down afresh. AFTER-MANAGEMENT. We now come to the after-management, upon which, as upon most of the other points, we have noticed there is some diversity of opinion. Some suggest mowing the grass the first year, allowing the seed to rioen before doing so, the seed will then shed during haymaking and so increase the closeness of the turf. Now, at first sight, this seems a reasonable plan and one worth following, but on further consideration we think it might be improved upon. For if the ground has not been seeded thickly enough, this defect ought to have been remedied before hay-time. The first year we should cut early, before any of the grasses are in flower, and afterwards roll repeatedly. By cutting early you check weeds, besides encouraging the grass to tiller. It may in all probability stand a second cutting, and after this, unless it gets very luxuriant, we should prefer leaving it alone till spring ; if, however, the growth is very strong, a few young cattle may be turned in. By all means keep sheep out of the pasture. We have heard a good deal about the golden tread of the sheep, but we must remember that it depends altogether where it treads as to whether the tread is golden or otherwise. Of course, on light land under the plough the tread of the sheep is beneficial in consolidating the land, neither is it so heavy as to poach it. The even distribution of manure, too, by sheep is a well-known advantage. But it is the close cropping of the sheep on newly-laid grass land, or upon the best meadows, which does so much harm. We have heard of one case where sheep had been placed on newly-laid grass and fed liberally with oil cake, and there being no good result the first year, the treatment was repeated, but still with no beneficial effect. The faith in the golden tread, however, being still unshaken, the plan was again tried ; but as the grass was setting perceptibly thinner, it occurred to the farmer that there must be something wrong either in the tread or something else. At any rate, the sheep were removed, and the meadow soon showed signs of improvement. , Good pastures on which oxen are fed are injured by sheep, which reject the coarser grasses, and pick out the finest; but a few horses turned into them in autumn or winter, help to consume the coarser tufts. The coarsest grass may also be made into hay, or if cut and left on the ground till partially dry, fee stock will readily eat it. •' A dressing of lime and salt scattered over the rougher parts in autumn will sweeten the herbage and induce the stock to eat it down regularly. Rich pastures intended for fattening cattle should not be used during winter, but allowed to become luxuriant before turning the cattle on them in spring. In changing cattle from one pasture to one another, let the change be gradual, and always to a b tfer, if possible. With regard to manuring, we would suggest that various kinds should he used, in order to keep a good, mixed herbage ; for it is found, if ammoniacal manures be exclusively used, the grasses will thrive to the exclusion of the clovers ; whereas, if phosphates, lime, &c., be used alone, the clovers will thrive to the exclusion of the grasses. The best artificial manures are guano, which is rich in phosphates and nitrogen ; and, in moderation; nitrite of soda and sulphate of ammonia, which are rich in nitrogen. Guano may be applied at the rate of 1£ to 2 cwt. per acre. A good mixture is made with three parts of guano, one part nitrate of soda, and one of sulphate of ammonia. Of this mixture 2 cwt. to cwt. per acre may be used. February is the best time as a rule to sow this.

On land where milch cows are pastured, or stock-rearing carried on, we find that bone-making substances are taken from the soil to a very large extent, and these are best replaced by such substances as lime, bone-dust, dissolved bone, superphosphate, &c. Of course farmyard dung will always do good on grass lands, the only fault with which is that we cannot get enough of it, and so we must study the markets for a substitute in the way of artificial manures, cake, &c. The cleanings of ponds and ditches should always be well exposed to the air before applying them to the land ; it is also well to mix lime with them, by which means the poisonous matter they contain is rendered harmless. In conclusion, we can only add that the better you treat your|pasture the better|itJwill*treat’you.|