ii68 



Improvement of Grass Land. 



[mar., 



of each animal increasing 20 lb. it has gained 40 lb., so that the 

 aggregate gain per acre has been 160 lb. — a four-fold increase. 

 The profits, too, are on much the same scale. Without taking 

 extreme cases, it may be said that it would only be a moderate 

 result if for an expenditure of £1 one got no more than £5 worth 

 of return, spread over, perhaps, as many years. 



Professor Somerville has been experimenting on the improve- 

 ment of grass land for nearly 30 years, and during that period 

 he has farmed many hundreds of acres, most of it under poor 

 grass. He has never failed to find that grass land is at once 

 responsive to improved treatment, and that no class of farming 

 gives such a liberal and certain return on capital expended. 



The improvement of grass land is so simple that those who 

 have studied the question are surprised that there is any poor 

 land left to improve. In the great majority of cases all that is 

 required is a Hberal dressing with phosphates. Basic slag 

 is to be preferred, not only because it is the cheapest form of 

 phosphate, but also because it is the most effective. Super- 

 phosphate acts nearly as well, but is more costly. Other 

 forms of phosphate which may be used, if those already referred 

 to cannot be obtained, are precipitated phosphate and mineral 

 phosphate ground to a very fine powder. It is important that 

 a liberal dressing should be appHed in the first instance, at 

 least half a ton per acre of basic slag containing 25-30 per cent, 

 of phosphate of lime. The result is that clover plants, which 

 before treatment were so small as scarcely to be seen, grow with 

 such vigour that in a year or two one would think that there 

 was little else than clover in the pastures. The feeding value 

 of the clover thus stimulated is so high that cases are known of 

 sheep on improved pasture without cake actually putting on 

 more weight than similar animals grazing adjoining unimproved 

 land and daily consuming the greater part of i lb. of cake 

 per head. 



The improvement, therefore, depends on the presence of 

 clover plants or other Legnminosce. Of all these plants wild 

 white clover is the best, because on account of its creeping 

 habit it rapidly fills up a pasture when it is supplied with 

 phosphates. In the great majority of cases the plants are 

 present and only need stimulating. If they are not naturally 

 present they must be introduced by sowing some seed of the 

 genuine wild variety. The demand for such seed is very keen, 

 and the price has now risen to over 30s. per lb., so that, if it 

 has to be purchased, about i lb. per acre must suffice. Farmers, 

 however, can quite easily grow their own supplies. AU they have 



