PASTURE STUDIES XI. PASTURE RESEARCH IN QUEBEC. CHEMICAL, ECOLOGICAL AND NUTRITIONAL PHASES

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Abstract
Surveys of pasture flora in Quebec have led to the recognition of four layers, viz., turf, tall herbaceous, shrub and tree. The human factor is advanced as the most important single agency determining the existing plant life but water supply and the fertility level exert important effects.The soils under investigation carry sufficient seed to produce, on the average, 77 million potential plants per acre, but these seeds show a low correlation with the plants prevalent in the sward. It was revealed that each mature cow voids [Formula: see text] million viable seeds per grazing season and that these seeds are closely related to the components of the sward.Where phosphorus was applied as superphosphate at a rate of 700 lb. per acre, it was shown that most of that element was fixed in the top half-inch of soil and that the available portion of it was largely depleted after three crop years. Pot cultures of pasture soils growing either Phleum pratense or Trifolium repens show that calcium has depressed and sulphur has increased both the herbage yield and the uptake of phosphorus. The organic fraction of phosphorus in soils has been identified as containing 0.5% of lecithin and 65% of nucleic acid. The latter has been extracted quantitatively in pure form.Mixed herbage and pure grass species have been fed to rabbits as a means of determining feeding value. The 35 groups fed have given highly variable results. Statistical examination of the data shows little if any correlation between gains and the constituents of the herbage as determined by a standard feeding-stuffs analysis. It has been tentatively concluded that the condition of the fibre, depending on the proportion of ligno and hemicellulose, is the most likely cause of the variability. The study is proceeding.

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