Only Agrimotors Can Save the Grassland M ECHANICAL cultivation has been
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proved necessary for grassland. This is a very important point, because not only is grassland highly valuable in this country, on account of the demand for meat, but snore so on account of the increasing demand for milk for many purposes.
There are thousands of acres of grassland, good in itself, in Great Britain, but doing nothing. Superficially it has deteriorated, hut basically it is good. It continues to deteriorate. To stop deterioration, to say nothing of improvement, is an expensive job.
Actually land is kept in good heart little by little, year in and year out. When that little by little is not a fact deterioration sets in. Once deterioration has begun, the cost of bringing land back to its hest state of productiveness, in the ordinary way, becomes snore and more costly, according to the degree of deterioration.
The hasie need of much grassland to-day, as well as of arable land, is proper drainage. It is of little use spending money on trying to improve land that requires draining_ This is a big job and one which ultimately will have to be carried out by the State.
Besides land requiring drainage, however, there are large areas deteriorating, or on the verge of doing so,
where drainage is not essentially a first factor. It is in the case of this land that modern discoveries with regard to the effectiveness of mechanical cultivation of grassland prove so much, and can help so much, in a reasonably cheap manner. Mechanical cultivation of grassland need not be out of the reach of any farmer, as regards the matter of cost.
There are tractors on so many farms to-day that the cost in power is usually merely that of enabling the tractor to work more days in the year. Spike harrowing is admirable treatment for most grassland, although, until recently, few farmers thought so. It tears out matted growth on the surface and aerates the soil, thus giving greater vigour to root action, resulting in better and cleaner crops, whilst it does not damage the grass plants. Severe treatment by this method is all to the good. It also keeps down weeds. Horse-drawn harrows are not effective enough. Good results can be obtained only by using power-drawn harrows of the self-cleaning type. There are many different makes of grass implement of the piercing type and all have their uses. For general use the self-cleaning harrow is best and it is essential on all farms of grass or the mixed type.