The Bozeman courier., 1921-07-13
GREAT PASTURE EXPERIMENT
AT COCkLE PARK, ENGLAND
by Chas. E. Thornel

by Chas. E. Thorne)
Northumberland is the northeast
ern county of England. It's total area
is 1,284,000 acres, of which about
100000 acres are in crops and pas
ture, the remainder being the noun
tains and moorlands of the Cheviot
hills.
The largest part of the country
lies north of the 55th parallel, so that
its summers are short and cool, frost
being liable to occur any month of
the year except July. The average
rainfall is only % inches, but it is
we'll distributed.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a city of
266,000 people, is on its southern
boundary, and Berwick-on-Tweed, for
the possession of which the Scotch
and English fought for centuries, is
on its northeastern corner. Grazing
is the leading agricultural industry
of the country.
In 1891 the county council of
Northumberland agreed to make a
contribution of 500 pounds year to-
ward the support of a department of
agriculture and forestry in Arm
strong college, Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
and the establishment of local sta
tions for manurial trials and demon
strations was made an important part
of the work of that department. By
1896 such demonstrations had been
undertaken on 46 farms in Northcum-
berland, Durham, and Cumberland.
But it soon became apparent that,
while landowners and farmers were
willing to cooperate in this work up
to certain point, they could not be
depended upon to carry it for suf-
ficient length of time, and to con-
duct it with such thoroughness as to
produce definite results.
In 1896 the county council leased
for 21 years the farm of Cookie Park,
containing 400 acres and lying about
21 miles north of Newcastle, and in
1917 the lease was renewed for an
other 21-year period, and 60 acres
more land was added.
In 1919 pastures and meadows oc-
cupied nearly $4,000 acres in North
cumberland, nearly four-fifth of this
area being in permanent pasture.
Wheat occupied $1,000 acres, which
was more than twice the area given
to that crop before the great war;
81 900 acres were given to barley and
oats, and $4,000 acres to turnips and
swedes. The problem Of maintaining
the pastures at the highest poiRt of
productiveness most appropriately be-
came the leading work of the county
experiment farm.
The work was inaugurated and con-
Quoted for four years by Prof. w
Somerville of Oxford; it was then
carried forward by Prof. Thomas H
: Middleton (now assistant secretary OF
the ministry of agriculture) until his
appointment to the chair of agricul.
ture in the University of Cambridge
: when he was succeeded by Prof. d. A
Gilchrist, under whose guidance the
: writer had the good fortune to in
spect the farm on August 8, in com
| pony WIN OO lcnAOuS 0COtNA 46A 1lACA .
who had come from Berwickshire, 81
miles away.
We were first led to the pasture
experiments, which are located on {
tract of level land, the soil being (;
heavy clay or clay loam, weathereC
from a boulder clay several feet il
thickness and lying upon sandstone
The land had been in cultivation un
til about 40 years ago, since when i
has lain in pasture. That it wa
considered poor land is shown by tn,
fact that before 1897 it's annual rent
al value was only about 75 cents al
acre.
The method of conducting the ex
periments has been to divide the Ian'
into small fields of from shree to tel
acres each, to treat Zach field con
tinuously with the same fertilizinj
materials, and to pasture the Ian
with sheep aloro n the smaller field
or with sheep End cattle in the larg
er ones, and Gstermine the increase i
live weight due to the different kind
of treatment.
Part of the land pastured onl
with sheep has received no treatmen
of any kind part has received phol