GRASSING OF BEECH-BUSH HILL COUNTRY.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XXII, Issue 1, 20 January 1921, Page 13

GRASSING OF BEECH-BUSH HILL COUNTRY.

EXPERIMENTS IN THE MURCHISON DISTRICT.

C. S. DALGLIESH,

[, Fields Instructor.

The grassing of beech-bush hill country in the Murchison district (Nelson back-country) has been a great source of trouble to the settlers, as the grasses sown last for three or four years only, and then bracken-fern completely takes possession. After the first two or three years the grass-growth is generally too scanty to allow the heavy stocking of the ground when the fern is coming away in the early summer, so that unless a sward can be secured which in itself will serve as an efficient competitor for the occupation of the ground fern is certain to become dominant in a few years.

Where the settler has a considerable area of flat country capable of growing good permanent and temporary pastures he is in the position of dealing with a considerable amount of hill country through his ability, whenever occasion demands, to heavily stock burns that are running into fern, and to recuperate his sheep after they have been kept under less than maintenance conditions on the hill country. In general, however, the owner of good flat ground leaves severely alone his hill-bush country, while the holder of only hill country, by means of burning and sowing down fresh areas, keeps his pasture-supply going until he has dealt with all his area, by which time many of his earlier burns have run into fern, and the ruin of his whole holding is often only a matter of a few years.

From the foregoing it can be seen that the grassing of certain hill country in the Murchison district should not be attempted on. a large scale until such time as there is reliable information regarding what kinds of grasses are best to sow and what method of management is best to adopt. The good growth for the first two years that is secured by reason of the temporary fertility of the soil due to the ashes formed through burning off the forest has in the past misled settlers as to the capabilities of the ground in supporting even a fair type of permanent pasture.

The soil of the Murchison hill country in general, as its original plant covering would indicate, is very deficient in lime, and also shows a marked deficiency in phosphates. Whether liming and the application of phosphates is in any way practicable is extremely problematical, but experiments in this direction are much to be desired.

The experience of the settlers has shown that Chewings fescue is -by far the most promising of the permanent grasses to sow, but it has rather a bad name owing to its not being relished by stock when the herbage is old. The value of Chewings fescue, however, is undoubted, and especially so on such country as the Murchison hills, - where the rainfall is sufficient to keep it growing during a good part of the year. As in other similar country in New Zealand, Danthonia pilosa makes a great effort in certain places to compete with fern in the final

possession of the ground, but in general except on dry sunny faces where the fern is not very vigorous it does not appear to establish readily, and when sown along with the original seedings has often proved very disappointing. Another factor that has a most serious effect on the permanent establishment of grassland is the great prevalence of grass - grubs in certain seasons, both the ordinary grass - grub (Odontria zealandica) and the green chafer (Pyronota festiva) causing great destruction.

THE GRASSING EXPERIMENTS.

In the spring of 1916 a typical area of 15 acres of this class of country in the Matari Valley, owned by Mr. J. Badcock, was felled, and was burnt in the autumn of 1917. It was then sown down in five grass-mixtures by the Department, with the object of ascertaining what type of grassland might best be produced. The main constituents of the mixtures were cocksfoot, Che wings fescue, florin, Poa pratensis, crested dogstail, Yorkshire fog, Danthonia pilosa, and yarrow. A very successful take of the grasses was secured, and excellent growth resulted the first year, the area being only lightly stocked. Since then stocking with sheep has been carried out under similar conditions to those on adjoining lands. With the exception of the portion on which a mixture of fog and Danthonia was sown, the pasture on the area, although not first-rate, is better and healthier in appearance than that of similar surrounding lands, and is improving, a marked improvement having been noticeable in the last twelve months. Fern is not yet causing trouble, only isolated plants being found. This can be attributed partly to. the successful burn secured, also to the area being closely grazed. Stock have always shown a preference for grazing on this area, being at all times allowed access to it when put on adjoining lands. Chewings fescue, florin, Poa pratensis, and yarrow have combined to form a very good pasture for this class of country over the greater part of the area. The following notes regarding these and some of the other grasses sown on the area afford useful points :

Fiorin : This grass has a strong hold on the shady sides of spurs, but is not so prominent on the sunny sides. It has been allowed to go to seed freely where it predominates, but where combined with other grasses it is more closely fed down. It is considerably later in spring growth than other grasses.

Cocksfoot : This has not shown to advantage, and is only moderately fair where liberally seeded. It would appear as if cocksfoot is quite unsuitable for use on this class of country. Even when it becomes established its superior palatability causes it to be overgrazedeven when the ground as a whole is lightly stocked. On this class of ground, unless a highly palatable grass can become dominant, it would appear better to confine the sowings to grasses of medium palatability rather than aim at a proportion of highly palatable grasses that can be killed out readily by overgrazing, such as is the case with cocksfoot. Poa pratensis : Although slow to start, this grass is now making good headway, and is at its best on the sunny sides of the spurs. On the rocky points of spurs and on sidlings which have a loose surface it forms a binding turf which prevents the loose surface from shifting so readily. Stock have always shown a decided preference to graze on the area on which it is dominant, and during the first season they

had to be removed from the whole area, due to their keeping the Poa pratensis plot too closely fed down. There is every indication that Poa pratensis, although theoretically only suited to soils fairly well provided with lime, is one of the most valuable grasses for the Murchison district.

Chewings fescue : This has done well both on hill-faces and lower lands.

Crested dogstail: This is only sparsely distributed through the hill-faces, but in moist places where the land is inclined to be heavy it has a strong hold, forms a close sole, and is to be found closely fed down.

Yarrow: This plant is freely distributed over all the area, and is kept closely fed down, forming a compact turf in combination with the grasses. ; . ’

Danthonia pilosa : The seedings with this grass have been more or less unsatisfactory, although when sown in combination with fog its resistance to the attacks of grass-grub was most marked, the fog being completely destroyed and isolated plants of Danthonia alone remaining. Could it be established rapidly Danthonia would certainly prove valuable, but the difficulty of sowing and the high cost of the seed would always be a drawback. Sowing down small areas on the flat ground, allowing the grass to seed, and then stocking with sheep which would carry the seed in their fleeces on to the hil 1 country, according to the practice adopted in certain parts of New Zealand, seems perhaps the only way of inexpensively introducing Danthonia into these pastures.

CONCLUSION.

The future of these experimental seedings will be of great interest, and their development will be watched carefully. At the present time it is fairly safe to say that rye-grass and cocksfoot should be eliminated from mixtures used on such country, and that a combination of Chewings fescue, florin, Poa pratensis, yarrow, and perhaps crested dogstail is likely to provide quite fair permanent grassland. It is particularly to be regretted that the sowings did not include tall fescue, a grass that in certain poor hill country is giving promise of being the most valuable dominant grass that should be sown. The great weakness of a combination of the grasses mentioned is the absence of clovers, but the soil with its present deficiency in lime and phosphates does not give any immediate promise of the successful establishment of permanent clovers.

Balled Red-clover Seed. —An interesting specimen . of red-clover seed, in which masses of the seed were balled together with some syrupy matter, was submitted recently to the Chemistry Section for examination. The substance dissolved in water, and reduced Fehling’s solution without previous inversion. It now appears from information received by the Department’s Biologist while in America that the phenomenon is well known there, and is caused by an aphis {Aphis Bakeri}.