Pasture growth and soil fertility: VIII. the influence of grasses, white clover, fertilisers, and the return of herbage clippings on pasture production of an impoverished soil

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Abstract
The effects of the factors given in the above title on herbage yield and on some soil characteristics were studied in a mown plot trial lasting six-and-one-half years. Initially the soil contained less than 0.1 per cent nitrogen and had very poor structure. The combined use of grass, white clover, fertilisers, and the return of clippings gave normal high production within three-and-onehalf years of sowing down the trial. High yields were, obtained only if the supply of nutrients, particularly nitrogen, was adequate. Improvements in soil structure. and increases in the number of worms, associated with some of the treatments, could not be shown to be important for high production. White clover, grown alone or with grass, fixed 600 lb/ac/year of nitrogen, provided herbage was cut and removed. If clippings were returned the rate of fixation was reduced to 350 lb/ac/year, but the rate of accumulation of soil nitrogen was greatly increased. Good yields of rape were obtained from plots after only three years under the highest-yielding swards.

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