Pastures for Florida


 Rock and colloidal phosphates are not recommended for the
alkaline or slightly acid muck and sandy soils.
 The frequency with which copper and manganese will need
to be applied is not known. If established sods have not been
topdressed with copper or manganese they should receive the ap-
plications recommended for establishing pastures (see page 25).
 Legumes.-Nitrogen fertilizers for maintaining grasses in
good growth are rather expensive and the costs may not always
be justified when returns are considered. Legumes cloverss and
lespedeza) should be grown in pastures where they are adapted
because they furnish herbage and simultaneously add nitrogen
to the soil, thereby stimulating grass growth (Fig. 17). Legume-
grass pastures grown on adapted soils are more productive than
grass pastures without legumes (Table 7). During 1943 grass
pastures which were not fertilized produced a total of 1,621
pounds of herbage, as compared with 3,280 pounds per acre when
treated with 500 pounds of a 6-6-6 fertilizer annually. Carpet-
lespedeza pastures treated with 300 pounds per acre of an

 FIG. 17.-FERTILIZERS IMPROVE GROWTH.
 Upper left, no fertilizer. Upper right, 300 pounds superphosphate per
acre. Lower left, growth when treated with nitrogen, phosphorus and
potash (500 pounds of a 6-6-6 fertilizer). Lower right, fertilized with 1
ton of lime and 600 pounds of 0-14-10 fertilizer to grow clover. The clover
furnished early feed and added nitrogen to the soil which increased grass
growth.