cows with linseed nuts and oatmeal increased the yield of milk per cow. The phosphate topdressing has evidently increased the content of phosphate in the pasture here, but the phosphate content is very low in the unmanured paddocks. Clubroot in the swede crop is responsible for failure after the first crop taken. On an adjoining farm, there are only five or six cows, out of fifty, in calf. A pasture sample, No. 6131, showed a higher P₂O₅ content, but this farmer topdresses with phosphate and lime.

Atea, Hukanui. This is poorer country, the forest originally being Nothofagus (beech). Last year “Waihi disease” badly affected the cattle, but topdressing a few acres with superphosphate made a great improvement on the poor country, and the clover came away well. This year there has been no “Waihi disease” and it is being further topdressed with phosphates (soil sample No. X 1131). Pasture sample 6132 from the non-topdressed land shows the very low phosphoric acid content of 0.20 per cent. on the dry matter and explains fully why the bone malnutrition disease affected the cows. The lime-requirement of 0.65 per cent. is exceptionally high, and it would probably pay to lime this land if lime is procurable at reasonable cost. Regarding this farm Mr. Webster reports a complete absence of oestrum in a large proportion of the herd.

Hamua rich flat lands contain a farm of 113 acres, carrying 90 cows and about 100 sheep. The river silts this land over each year. Last year there was no temporary sterility in the cows, but this year difficulty is being experienced. The non-topdressed land pasture consists of white clover, ryegrass and crested dogstail. The owner topdressed a small hay paddock of about 8 acres with 2 cwt. superphosphate, and the growth was so strong that he could not deal with it. The original forest was matai, totara, rimu, rata, mahoe, hinau, etc. It is usually understood that matai (black pine) indicates good rich soil. Soil sample x1162 from non-topdressed paddocks. Pasture from non-topdressed land No. 6133. Mr. Webster reports that this farmer has had very little trouble with his stock.

A Mauriceville farm, on land opposite the lime-works, but not topdressed or limed has 40 years' old pasture (sample No. 6128) consisting of white clover, cocksfoot, ryegrass, timothy, and crested dogstail. The cows are clean, but four or five keep returning to the bull. This soil No. x1127, has a slight alkaline reaction, a negative lime-requirement figure and a high lime-content, but the pasture contains only 0.37 per cent. P₂O₅. The well-known effect of calcium carbonate in the soil making the phosphate more available may be economising the small amount of phosphate present in the soil, but the amount present in the pasture is still too low. Mr. Webster reports that this farmer has no trouble, except that an occasional heifer may have difficulty in conceiving.

On some farms between Carterton and Masterton “Waihi disease” appears to have been suspected, as cows were seen chewing bones (soil No. x1139) from Belvedere. Last spring on this farm some 15 acres were top-dressed with superphosphate, 2 cwt. per acre, and bran was fed to the cows. This year the cows have come in season and are holding to the bull. The pasture on the foot-hills

is from country which is growing totara, manuka, and blackberry to some extent. It consists of 75 per cent. of weeds of all sorts, the remainder being bent-grass (Agrostis), brome-grass, white clover, and cocksfoot in about equal proportions, the whole being very old pasture. This pasture (sample 6137) shows a very low nitrogen and phosphoric acid content. Mr. Webster reports this farm to be definitely afflicted with “Waihi disease.” Absence of oestrum was also a difficulty, and this farmer has had good results from feeding bran and superphosphate to cows.

From this farm are therefore obtained data which strongly support phosphatic dressing of pasture and supplementary feeding with food stuffs rich in phosphate.

A Featherston farm is about 50 ft. above sea-level, on a rich flat which is annually covered with silt from the Ruamahanga river when in flood. Ground limestone and superphosphate (3 to 1) has been used as a topdressing on the night paddocks, at the rate of 3 cwt. per acre per annum. This pasture is 30 years old and consists of ryegrass 40 per cent., white clover 40 per cent., fog, cocksfoot, and dogstail 20 per cent. It is grazed fairly short, leaving only really good sheep feed (pasture sample 6134. Soil No. X 1133). Mr. Webster reports that this farmer has a fair amount of temporary sterility with typical cervicitis.^*

The pasture on the day paddocks was not topdressed, but was the same age as that of the night paddocks and contained white clover 25 per cent., fog 37 per cent., cocksfoot and rye 37 per cent. These were well grazed but not so short as the night paddocks (pasture sample No. 6135, soil sample No. X 1135).

A Greytown farm represents a patch of country where neither willows nor poplars will live, although repeated attempts have been made to establish them. The pasture consists of white clover in good amount, cocksfoot, ryegrass, and fog and is old, possibly 30 years since laid down (pasture sample 6136, soil No. x1137). On this farm there are some special patches of soil representing slight elevations or knobs standing out over the surrounding level, where springs arise and apparently bring to the surface minerals which cause the herbage to be unusually attractive to stock. Sample of soil, x1161, from these knobs shows a high lime-content, but as the sample is a humus one its comparison with the other soils is scarcely permissible (pasture sample 6176). Mr. Webster reports that this farmer has had a considerable amount of sterility, both temporary and permanent, for several years.

This farm was visited by Mr. Grimmett in September last, who learned that the owner had been feeding concentrates, bone-meal, and superphosphate to his cows, but was now relying on topdressing

an unusually high lime-requirement figure, the Hukanui soil which requires 0.65 per cent. of carbonate of lime, another soil near the Mauriceville lime-works has a negative requirement and a slight alkaline reaction. The fact that the clovers are so prominent a feature in the pastures shows that there is no lack of calcium in the autumn food-supply, and that from the point of view of the health of stock further calcium applications are not indicated as necessary.

The lime-requirement figures of the samples received from the Wairarapa over a series of years have been examined, and the following results may be of interest.

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There is nothing in these figures to denote such a pressing need for lime in the Wairarapa district that the health of stock is liable to suffer. The results are what one would expect in an ordinary North Island soil where the requirement is usually from 2–4 tons per acre, roughly equivalent to 0.2 to 0.4 per cent. calcic carbonate.

Total nitrogen is present in good proportion, and potash would in no case seem to be deficient. The only other constituent it is necessary to enquire into is the phosphoric acid, and it will at once be seen that on several of the farms the total phosphoric acid is present in low amounts. The available phosphoric acid when it falls to such a low figure as 0.003 to 0.005 per cent. is very low, and even 0.007 is low when one has to consider the effects of a droughty summer and that the pasture is for the maintenance of dairy cows as well as sheep. Summing up the results as shown by soil-analysis, one may say that it is quite probable that lime will do good in most cases, but the abundance of the clovers, which usually contain about twice as much calcium as the ordinary grasses, indicate that it is not to the deficiency of calcium in the pasture that one may attribute the failure of cows to thrive normally. In the case of phosphoric acid, there is clearly room for suspicion that owing to the low amount present and the fact that drought occasions a greater diminution in the phosphate absorbtion from the soil by pasture than of the other mineral elements likely to be deficient, it is quite likely that if lack of any mineral food is causing partial sterility or “Waihi disease” in cows, that mineral food is phosphoric acid. The best evidence, however, must be looked for in the analysis of the pasture.

Pasture Analysis: In these samples (see table 3) it will be seen that there is a very great disproportion in the relative amounts of phosphoric acid and calcium oxide present. In the phosphoric acid amounts are found which would compare with what is found in the poor pastures in the Island of Lewis, 0.25 per cent., the Falkland

Islands 0.54 per cent., and the comparatively dry innutritious pastures of South Africa. The very low nutritive value of the pastures in some cases, as shown by the nitrogen determinations, should be noted. Low phosphorus-content appears to occur together with low nitrogen-content. There are no instances of very low iron-content, but a number of the samples are contaminated by soil as shown by the high alumina-content of the pasture-samples.

The manganese-content is below the iron-content in most cases, but some of the manganese and iron may be contributed as a contamination by the soil. The calcium-content is as a rule high for a pasture.

Sir Arnold Theiler in his work on South Africa (“Minimal Mineral Requirements in Cattle,” Journal of Agricultural Science, July, 1927), carried out very careful experiments with heifers to determine what was the effect of low mineral-rations, particularly regarding phosphorus and calcium, the proportion of the different minerals being varied in different experiments.

As examples of low calcium-rations he quotes:—

• “A” experiment where 6.9 grams of CaO were given per day, which may be conveniently referred to as0150 lb. CaO.

• “E” experiment where 8.2 grams of0183 lb. CaO were given.

As examples of high calcium rations he quotes:—

• “D” experiment 29.0 grams CaO per day, or0650 lb. CaO.

• In “E” experiment abundant phosphate was provided for both animals. In this experiment one animal aborted twin calves, the other gave birth to a normal calf, but the cow died of metritis following retention of the afterbirth.

The Wairarapa pastures, assuming that only the lowest summer amount of calcium oxide found (0.7 per cent.) was present, would provide a cow eating 28 lb. of dry matter with 0.196 lb. CaO per day, or more than thrice as much calcium as Theiler considers a high calcium-ration.

Again, Wilson considers that the average cow's rations should contain:—

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or more according to yield of milk.

The Wairarapa cows should be getting more than three times this amount of calcium oxide in the pasture, which is lowest in calcium.

Turning to the phosphorus-supply of the Wairarapa cows, there are Theiler's excellent experiments, which are again of great assistance in helping one to form an opinion as to minimal requirements. In experiment “D” in which only 5.1 grams P₂O₅=(0.0114 lb.) were

consumed in the ration of each of two heifers, ample other nutrients being provided, it was found that both animals developed “Styfsiekte” (a malnutrition disease affecting the bones) and gave birth to an abnormal or a dead calf respectively. Theiler considers “styfsiekte” is “straight aphosphorosis” (phosphate deficiency disease). The supply of P₂O₅ in this experiment “D” is obviously inadequate. As an adequate P₂O₅ supply “more than sufficient for growth, and indeed, sufficient to obviate actual deficiency disease after calving, provided the milk yield is low” Theiler instances in experiment “C” the case of two heifers, which each received in her ration 28 grams (.0625 lb.) P₂O₅. In this experiment the mothers remained healthy and gave birth to healthy calves, which developed normally. In these experiments of Theiler's, which were conducted under South African conditions, it must be remembered that only a maximum of 3½ lb. of hay was given daily to each animal, the most of the ration consisting of concentrates, such as bran, crushed maize preparation “fanko,” bone meal, and blood containing phosphoric acid in a high state of availability. No grazing was given, so that the total ration apart from minerals would weigh not more than 13½ lb. daily for each heifer. It is worth noting that Theiler presumes that skeletal reserves (the reserve of P₂O₅ in the bones) are sufficient to allow for comparatively normal growth for several months, a valuable provision of nature enabling large-boned animals to tide over temporary shortages of phosphate in their rations. It is thus seen that 0.0114 lb. P₂O₅ daily for heifers is entirely inadequate, but that under similar conditions 0.0625 lb. P₂O₅ is quite sufficient when the P₂O₅ is given in a highly available form such as bone and bran, and the milk yield is not high. It is to be noted that Theiler's experimental heifers gave only up to 5 litres of milk daily (about 9 pints), or at the outside little more than sufficient for the calf, but an amount which entails a small drain of P₂O₅ on the mother. Thus according to Wilson a cow requires:—

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A two-gallon cow would therefore require063 lb., but some of Theiler's ½-gallon heifers only036 lb. P₂O₅. On the other hand, the heavier and higher-yielding cows reported on by Woodman would require 0.099 lb. P₂O₅ or nearly one-tenth of a lb. P₂O₅ daily. These are the actual requirements of the animal, and it must always be remembered that only one-half of the phosphoric acid in the dry matter is digestible. The average cow cannot consume more than one hundred-weight of green grass daily. This contains 25 per cent. of dry matter, or 28 lb. Some of the Wairarapa pasture contained as little as 0.2 per cent. of phosphoric acid in the dry matter, which would allow the cow to consume only 0.056 lb. P₂O₅ daily as an outside limit, and if only one-half of this is digestible, and the cow is giving two gallons of milk a day, it is seen that it requires063 lb. and is only digesting 0.028 lb., so that the milk being unalterable