SB 199 W95 SB 199.W95""'""'"^^^''V Library ^^(S'lJEvementofr f 1! f ir f THE PROVEMENT OF POOR PERMANENT PASTURE LECTURE DELIVERED AT AYR ON 30th OCTOBER, 1906 BY Professor R. >ATRICK WRIGHT F.H.A.S., F.R.S.E. PRINCIPAL OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 4b /ff REPRINTED BY PERMISSION iLill mm. if! Ill TfTJ iILiii luUI iri ill luJil \ The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003380874 ^ a o o < O Q E- W S S w X w g 5 ■< S w cc; < w THE IMPROVEMENT OF POOR PERMANENT PASTURE BY PROFESSOR R. PATRICK WRIGHT F.H.A.S., FR.S.E. PRINCIPAL OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE GLASGOW : PRINTED BY CARTER & PRATT, LIMITED 62 BOTUWELL CIRCUS The Improvement of Poor Permanent Pasture, PRINCIPAL WRIGHT, of the West of Scotland Agricultural College, Glasgow, addressed a meeting in Ayr, on Tues- day, 30th October, 1906, on the subject of "Improvement of Poor Permanent Pasture." He said that the question of the improvement of poor permanent pasture had engaged a good deal of public atten- tion during the past few years, A revived interest had been taken in the subject from the date of the publication by Dr. Somerville of the results of experiments designed and carried out by him at Cockle Park. That original experiment attracted a great deal of public attention, because it introduced ' an entirely new method of treating pasture, and also produced on that station results of a striking and remarkable character. The field experimented on was divided into plots of three acres. Each of these plots received different treatment with manures, and the result was decided by stocking each of the plots by separate lots of sheep which were grazed on the plots, regularly weighed every month, and a record kept of their weights and progress, and at the end of the year the improvement in the pasture was not determined by the casual method of comparing the appearance of one plot with that of another, but by the amount of multon made by the sheep. They got an increase on some of the plots sufficient to pay the cost of the manures, and on others they had a very large profit. The results of the manuring at Cockle Park could be hardly credited except by those who had seen the plots, and one of the chief features was the extra- Ordinary growth of clover on land where previously it had hardly been visible. That improvement had been the result of manuring with basic slag. During four years an increase of value of ^£4 was obtained, and in eight years they had a return of ;£S for an original expenditure of ^i. In consequence of these results the Board of Agriculture initiated similar experiments in Scotland and England. Those in Scotland were carried out under the auspices of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland and the West of Scotland Agricultural College. A report of these experiments was given in the " Transactions " of last year by Dr. Wilson of Carbeth. The results, to a certain extent, confirmed the conclusions arrived at by Dr. Somerville, but they failed to show such striking or quite such profitable results. On none of the farms in Scotland did they find such a remarkable growth of clover to be produced by the application of basic slag or any other manure, and no such great profits were obtained. At the end of four years the conclusions arrived at by Dr. Wilson were tentative. Whilst the improvement was perhaps profitable, it was not so to nearly the same degree as at Cockle Park. Two further experiments had been carried out in Scotland of a more encouraging character than that obtained in these experiments. In some respects they livalled the Cockle Park experiments, and in one of them a distinct advance had been made in the methods previously adopted. For three years an experiment had been carried out on the farm of Mid Lochar- woods, near Dumfries, belonging to the Scottisli Labour Colony. The land was pure reclaimed peat moss, which was, in its original condition, practically worthless. After draining and cultivating for a few years, it was laid down to pasture, and the grasses fell back till it contained only woithless and in- nutritious kinds. The experiment consisted in taking three plots, one of which was untreated, one received a dressing of 10 cwt. basic slag per acre, and the other a dressing of 10 cwt. basic slag and 8 cwt. kainit. These manures were all applied in the spring of 1904. The application of the manures produced very remarkable effects. These were shown partly in the change produced in the appearance of the pasture, and partly in the power shown by them of carrying a greatly increased stock. The manured plots showed from the first season a much more vigorous growth. They were of a greener and healthier colour, and clover and the better grasses showed Q O O < o Q < Z u w a. X M z <; s M Oi H en <: u H themselves much more prominently than on the unmanured plot. The plots were grazed with sheep for twenty weeks, and the numbers of sheep carried on each plot were determined by a local committee of practical farmers in consort with the College authorities. The unmanured plot carried in 1904 seven sheep, and in 1905 and 1906 five sheep each year. The slag plot carried eight sheep in 1904 and six sheep in each of the two succeeding years, and the slag and kainit plot carried eleven sheep in 1904 and nine sheep in each of the two following years. Thus the slag and kainit plot carried, as nearly as might be, double the number of sheep carried by the un- treated plot. Moreover, both the manured plots were mani- festly understocked. The grass grew so luxuriantly that the sheep could not keep it down, and, owing to some difficulty with the water supply, they could not be grazed by cattle to the full extent that was necessary. Moreover, the manured plots not only carried more stock in sheep and cattle, but they also kept the stock in better condition. The sheep throve better on them than on the untreated plot, in spite of the extra roughness of the pasture. The manures not only increased the quantity of produce, but improved the quality of the produce as well. That was shown by the average increases in weight made by the sheep. Taking 1904, 1905, and 1906, on the unmanured plot the sheep, during the grazing season, made an average increase per week per sheep of 1.64 lb , while the sheep on the slag and kainit plot made an increase of 1.S4 lb., so that the manures improved the feeding quality of the pasture as markedly as they increased the total yield. The total increase obtained in the three years showed most clearly the full results produced by the manures, but before giving the figures it was necessary to explain that an accident occurred in the latter part of the 1905 season by the sheep being worried, and three- fourths of them entirely destroyed by dogs. It was found impossible to re-stock the plots at that time, and therefore the increase for the last eight weeks of the experiment of 1905 was taken as that of the mean of the corresponding eight weeks of the years 1904 and 1906. The increase for the first twelve weeks of 1905 was properly ascertained, and the increase estimated for the closing eight weeks of the summer, as above explained, was added to it to get the complete returns for the season. The actual increases made by the sheep on the three plots for the twenty weeks' grazing per acre in lbs. were : — Untreated plot— In 1904, 68 lbs. ; 1905, 55 lbs. ; and 1906, 45 lbs. — a total of 168 lbs. Slag plot — In 1904, 94 lbs. ; 1905, 80 lbs. ; and 1906, 75 lbs. — or a total of 249 lbs., or 81 better than the untreated plot. The slag and kainit plot— 1904, 130 lbs.; 1905, 102 lbs.; and 1906, 89 lbs — or a total of 321 lbs., which was 153 lbs. of an increase on the untreated plot. In translating these results into money value, he calculated the mutton increase at 3d. per lb., a very low estimate, and the cattle grazing at is. per week. The increase of 81 lbs. on the slag plot was value for £,\ os. 3d., and the cattle grazing for 15 s. 9d. — making a total of ;^i i6s. The manure cost £,\ is lod., and the gross profit for the three years was 14s. 2d. The value of the increase of 153 lbs. mutton on the slag and kainit plot was ;^i i8s. 3d., of the cattle grazing, £,2 3s. 6d. — or a total of ;£\ is. gd. The manure cost £,1 1 8s. 6d., so that the gross profit in the three years was ;£2 3s. 3d. That was in itself a remarkable profit BUT IT FELL FAR SHORT OF THE ACTUAL VALUE OF THE IMPROVEMENT MADE. ThE MANURED PLOTS HAD NEVER BEEN SUFFICIENTLY STOCKED WITH CATTLE TO GIVE THEIR FULL RETURNS. Moreover, it had to be remembered that these WERE the RETURNS OF TWENTY WEEKS ONLY IN EACH YEAR. There remained thirty-two weeks during which the manured plots certainly gave a much more valuable WINTER GRAZING THAN THE UNMANURED. It HAD ALSO TO BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT THAT THE MANURES APPLIED HAD NOT YET NEARLY EXHAUSTED THEIR EFFECTS. JUDGING FROM OTHER EXPERIMENTS, IT COULD BE CONFIDENTLY SAID THAT THEY WERE PROBABLY NOT YET HALF EXHAUSTED, AND THE ULTIMATE PROFITS MIGHT BE EXPECTED TO AMOUNT TO AT LEAST TWICE AS MUCH AS HAD BEEN ALREADY OBTAINED. ThE EXPERIMENT SHOWED CONCLUSIVELY THAT, SO FAR AS PEAT OR MOSS LANDS WERE CONCERNED, THE APPLICATION OF A PHOS- PHATIC ALONG WITH A POTASIC MANURE WAS A VERY SURE AND CERTAIN WAY OF IMPROVING THE PASTURES THEREON. There were immense tracts of moss land which had at one time been cultivated, but which had been allowed to go out of cultivation. This experiment had made certain what they had previously only anticipated — that by applying limited quantities of artificial manure?, which werj everywhere obtainable at a moderate cost, 10 and which were capable, owing to their concentrated form, of being easily conveyed to the most inaccessible regions and to the most remote mountains, they had a readily available means of improving all such poor pastures, and of thus adding immensely to the productiveness of land which hitherto had been found to be of very low value. The second experiment was carried out on Colston, in Haddingtonshire, the property of Mr. Baird. In carrying out these pasture e.xperiments already referred to, his colleague. Professor M'Alpine, had called his attention to a defect in them which greatly limited the improve- ment possible. While the grasses that were actually growing there could be made more productive by manuring, they could not im- prove beyond a certain point. On poor pasture they had the poorest of grasses, and no amount of manurial application would put grasses there that were not there already. In the case of the Scotch experiments, they had not found the improvement in the growth of clover which they found at Cockle Park, and that was because the clovers were not there to begin with. They could by no amount of feeding feed a sheep into a bullock, or a pig into a cow. The difficulty, then, was that when they put on the manures on poor grasses they did not get as good a return as they would if there were good grasses to work on. The new feature in connection with the Colston experiments was that they attempted to improve the grasses on the pisture. Of course, the general plan of improving pasture land was to put it through an expensive and costly course of cropping, and then lay it down again to grass, but in such cases in three years it was often nearly as bad as before. Now, it had been suggested that a less expensive method might be tried at Colston, and that was to improve the grasses without breaking up and cropping the land. He suggested the apphca- tion of certain manures, and Professor M'Alpine the sowing of certain seeds, on this intractable clay. The field was twice grubbed or cultivated, the one operation being at right angles to the other. It was also harrowed several times, so as to get loose soil for the seeds. A dressing of 8 cwt. basic slag and 4 cwt. kainit in spring, and i cwt. nitrate of soda at a later period, was applied. The seeds were sown, harrowed, and then rolled. The seed consisted of a mixture of all the best clovers and grasses. The seeds sown in 1905 took to a certain extent, but what was most remarkable was the result of the seeding given 11 in 1906, when the cultivalion of the surface of the soil appeared to have been more thoroughly done. The seeds had taken better, and had done so remarkably well that he did not know in what words to describe the result, because they had not got weights and figures, as in the other cases. The only convincing "way was to see on the field the ten acres treated, and to compare them with the untreated old pasture lying alongside. The effect produced had been quite as remarkable as that obtained at Cockle Park. The clovers had universally taken root, and on examina- tion it was found that the grasses were also coming away well. The strong clovers would, no doubt, die out, but the fact of their having taken root in the soil would help to improve it, and the grasses would be all the better for them. Once a field was stocked with good grasses they could improve it to any degree desired by the further application of manures. The experiment Avas important, because they did not know before if this method -of dealing with poor pasture would succeed or not. The -experiments showed .that however poor it was, moss pasture iand could be improved by dressings of slag and kainit, and poor pasture of any kind could be improved by a combination ■of seeding and manuring, and he believed such treatment would prove very successful oa any kind of soil that was farmed in the "County of Ayr. < O o Q 3 (A o tc 'in E O (A n o (0 o « II < a (0 . ■11 ■** fu ^ (A (A O oeo d " c ■-OS so :2 5 < I. o & b» (13 (0 o w «s i o o c o a< b/).£ so M a «; ° &.'S p is i:0 g 3 C a E