1906.] 



Improvement of Poor Pasture. 



555' 



Results from Feeding Decorticated Cotton Cake to Sheep. — 

 On plot I about 600 lb. per acre of decorticated cotton cake has 

 been fed to the sheep in the two years 1897-8, while 600 lb. 

 were also fed to them in each of the years 1903 and 1904. The 

 result has been an increase of 6g\ lb. in live-weight per acre 

 annually and a net gain of 8s i id. per acre per annum. Taking 

 the two years 1897-8 a-s one for this purpose the cake in the 

 years in which it was fed gave an average increase of 146 lb. 

 in live-weight per acre per annum, which is equal to 45s. 7d. at 

 3|d. a lb. As each 600 lb. of cake cost about 38s. 8d. this left 

 a gain of 6s. iid. an acre from feeding the cake in each of 

 these years. In the five years that cake was not fed on this 

 plot, the average live-weight increase per acre was about 37^ lb., 

 equal to about us. 8d. in value, a most satisfactory result. 

 There is no doubt that the extra treading of the pasture by the 

 heavier stock in the years that the cake was fed has assisted the 

 manurial ingredients of the cake passed through the sheep to 

 the land, in improving the pasture. The good effects of the 

 cake fed in 1897-8 were well maintained for four years there- 

 after, as even in the fourth season after the cake was stopped 

 there were 30 lb. per acre of live-weight increase, worth just 

 over 8s. The results in 1905, however, were not up to expecta- 

 tion, as only 36 lb. increase in live-weight were given, although 

 cake had been fed for the two previous years. 



Returns in Proportion to Cost of Treatment, — For every 

 shilling spent on treatment, the following returns have been 

 given : — By slag on plot 3, 9s. 6d. ; by same on plot 4, 7s. i id. 

 by superphosphate on plot 5, 4s. 5d. ; by same and potash on 

 plot 7, 3s. ; by same and ground lime on plot 8^ 3s. 2d. ; by 

 same and sulphate of ammonia on plot 9, 2s. ; by dissolved 

 bones on plot 10, 2s. 7d. ; by lime on plot 2, 8d. (loss) ; and by 

 cake fed on plot i, is. 8d. 



The Report also gives full details as to the effect of the 

 manures on the botanical composition of the herbage on the 

 various plots. 



There are several other experiments of an allied nature in 

 progress at Cockle Park. In one of them, larger plots in 

 Hanging Leaves Fields, have been stocked with both cattle and 

 sheep, so as to give the pasture a better chance of improving 



