Journal of the British Grassland Society

Abstract

THE first number of the Journal of the British Grassland Society has now been issued. The price of Volume l(No 1 and 2), 1946, is 10s., and applica tion for ppfthase should be made to the Secretary, BritislK Graraland Society, Agricultural Research BjMildmA Penglais, Aberystwyth. The volume opens wifjUr a foreword by Sir George Stapledon and also includes his presidential address, with ley farming as its principal theme, given at the inaugural meeting on June 20, 1945. Other contributors deal with various questions of interest in grassland manage ment. In tests to compare different techniques for measuring grass production, a close correlation is shown between output in terms of grass clippings by the movable cage method with that from live weight-increase in grazing cattle. Other grazing experimentson reclaimed upland areas in Montgomeryshire are described, in which re-seeding appears to have con siderably improved the carrying capacity of the land. Practical advice on silage-making and its place in good grassland management is the subject of a further article, silage both being a valuable food and a useful means of controlling the sward and, more over, not entailing heavy capital outlay or expensive equipment. From a detailed account of severe leather-jacket attack on re-seeded grassland in Yorkshire, there seems at present no really efficient means for controlling this pest on a farm scale, though attention to drainage, close grazing during the late summer when egg-laying takes place, and the maintenance of fertility are evidently factors which may lessen the degree of attack. A feature of this first number are the good photographs which illustrate each of the articles.