THe JOUHNAb 



OF 



T^fie ^Department of Hgncuffure 



OF 



VICTORIA, 



Vol. XV. Part 8. lOth August, 1917. 



TRIlATMENT OF PASTURES. 



PREVENTION OF RICKETS, CRIPPLES, AND PARALYSIS. 

 Increase of Production. 



By E. W . Murphy, Dairy Supervisor. 



Rural matters are receiving special attention at the present juncture 

 in connexion with war problems. Mr. Lloyd George has emphasized the 

 need of increasing production, and E. J. Russell, D.Sc, Director of the 

 Rothamstead Experimental Station, in a recent manual urging the in- 

 creased use of fertilizers for higher crop production, in the last sentence, 

 says: — " But, above all, try and improve the pastures." 



Experiments at the Rutherglen State Experimental Farm, conducted 

 by Mr. A. E. V. Richardson, M.A., B.Sc, have demonstrated the great 

 value of lime and phosphatic manure for top-dressing grass lands. By 

 means of moderate dressings, the carrying capacity was more than 

 doubled, and, with better attention to sub-division, so as to be able to 

 intelligently control the grazing, much could be done over large areas in 

 this State, by following the example. Some grasses will stand a fair 

 amount of close eating, whilst others, such as prairie-grass and cow-grass, 

 will not stand heavy stocking. In Gippsland, I have frequently noticed 

 that a fence seemed to divide good land from bad, yet the difference was 

 entirely due to one being a fattening paddock, and the other running 

 milch cows. If the pasture is continually eaten closely, the root system 

 is weakened, and more exposed to extremes of climate, but occasional 

 heavy stocking is an advantage, and helps to keep down undesirable 

 growths. 



Scientific research has shown that fresh succulent foods contain " pro- 

 tective substances " or vitamines, which are essential to life. In the dry 

 scanty herbage of impoverished soils, during drought times, there is a 

 paucity of these " protective substances," and a marked deficiency of the 

 necessary minerals, which recent physiological investigations have shown 

 to be so essential to life. Hilda Kincaid, M.Sc, in 1910, did research 

 work, under the guidance of Professor Osborne, on the " Biochemical 



8683.— 1 



