Pastures and Pasture Research

Abstract

GRASSLAND is still the chief raw material of stock farming, and therefore a full understanding of its problems is important in the basic industry of animal food supply. Mr. C. M. Donald held for two years the Powlett Scholarship of the University of Sydney, and visited Britain, the United States and New Zealand. He has summarized the experience thus gained with a view to its application in problems of Australian grassland. The result is a small volume dealing with scientific principles of pasture management. It discusses the role of pastures in land utilization, pasture composition and seeds mixtures, species and strains of pasture plants, pasture management, the nutritive value of pastures, and the technique of experimentation as applied to grassland. The general agricultural reader might perhaps be most interested in the development of Svalof strains of late red clover resistant to Sclerotinia stem-rot, and in the application of the Gentner ultra-violet test for purity of perennial ryegrass. A chemical test with picric acid for the purity of wild white clover promises to have more practical significance than the ultra-violet test. The booklet is well illustrated by diagrams and photographs, and would be useful to workers in any region who require a succinct resume of modern pasture research. Pastures and Pasture Research By C. M. Donald. Second edition. Pp. 117. (Sydney: University of Sydney, 1946.) n.p.