78 PASTURE PLANTS AND PASTURES OF N.Z. 



The Clifton Park System. — This system of laying land 

 down to temporary pasture was devised by Elliot, for the 

 purpose of renovating or improving dry upland pastures 

 with thin soil and hard clay subsoil, the soil being either 

 naturally poor in organic matter, or impoverished by over 

 much cropping. 



In New Zealand there are large areas of land with thin 

 soil, poor in humus and underlaid by stiff clays, and it is 

 probable that the apphcation of Elliot's principles may 

 bring these lands within the limits of cultivation and largely 

 increase their productivity. If a soil is poor in humus this 

 may most quickly and cheaply be supplied by growing grasses 

 that produce a thick and bulky turf, which, while they 

 support stock weU during their growth, enrich the land in 

 organic matter when the turf is ploughed under. For this 

 purpose the Rye Grasses, with their shallow root systems 

 on poor land, are quite unsuited, but Cocksfoot is eminently 

 adapted for the purpose. The habits of Phalaris bulbosa 

 suggest that it too would give satisfactory results, but so 

 far as we know it has not yet been used for the purpose here 

 discussed. The supply of organic matter may be further 

 augmented, and the stiff subsoil broken up at the same time, 

 by the use of plants with deep penetrating tap-roots. These 

 not only enrich the surface soil by conveying water and food 

 supplies from the subsoil upwards, but by their bursting 

 action tend to increase the depths to which the tender roots 

 of the grasses may go. Of such plants Chicory is one of the 

 most profitable. It provides a moderate amount of very 

 palatable feed, and its roots, which are bulky, will burst 

 through some of the hardest clays. Lucerne too might well 

 be employed. The extraordinary penetrating power of its 

 roots is well known, and while it is impossible to secure a 

 close crop of lucerne under heavy grazing, yet a few scattered 

 plants will always persist in a pasture, where their strong 



