The experiments were undertaken to investigate the influence of growing seasons on the nutritive value of orchardgrass, tall fescue, meadow fescue, perennial ryegrass and timothy in Tokachi district. All grasses were divided into following three groups on the basis of seasonal harvests: i) grasses which were first cutting in spring (spring grasses); ii) grasses which were after-math growth in summer (summer grasses); iii) grasses which were last cutting of the year in autumn (autumn grasses). The results summarized as follows. 1. In comparison with the summer grasses, digestible amount of cell wall in spring grasses and digestible amount of cell contents in autumn grasses were high. 2. Soluble carbohydrate contents of summer grasses were lower than spring and autumn grasses. Acid detergent lignin contents of summer grasses were higher than spring and autumn grasses. Silicic acid contents of spring grasses were lower than summer and autumn grasses. 3. Digestible energy contents of summer grasses were lower than spring and autumn grasses. 4. Decrease in digestible dry matter of summer grasses was explainably on account of decreasing digestible amount of cell contents and increasing indigestible amount of cell wall.

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This study was conducted to compare the effects of three levels of manure and urine applications on the chemical composition and the feeding value of soiling corn (white dent corn) during four years, from 1972 to 1975. Levels of application per 10 a during one cropping period were ; High level plot: manure 15,000kg plus urine 6,000kg Low level plot: manure 5, 000kg plus urine 2,000kg Control plot: No manure and urine, N 23kg as ammonium sulphate, P_2O_5 17kg as superphosphate and K_2O 24kg as potassium chloride. Corn plant was sown at the rate of 10kg per 10 a in 60cm rows on Jun. 6 in 1972, and on Jun. 5 in 1973, 1974 and 1975, respectively. Harvesting was made on Aug. 13 in both 1972 and 1973, on Aug. 8 in 1974 (early milk stage), and Jul. 31 to Aug. 13 in 1975 (tasseling to early milk stage), respectively. Digestibility was estimated by the conventional collection digestion trial with sheep. All materials were chopped into 5 to 7cm, and fed to sheep as green forage, sun-cured hay or silage. The results are summarized as follows: 1. During four experimental years, the highest annual dry matter yield was obtained in 1973, while no significant difference was observed between treatments. 2. Crude protein content of the high level plot was the highest throughout experimental years, especially higher than other treatments in 1973, 1974 and 1975. Also, crude protein content of the control plot was significantly higher than that of the low level plot in 1972. 3. Crude ash content of all treatments showed a tendency to increase as experimental year advanced. 4. Calcium content was decreased with increasing manure and urine application. 5. Both K and NO_3-N contents were increased with increasing manure and urine application, though K content showed a tendency to increase with year advanced. Content of K in the high level plot was significantly higher than that of the control plot in 1975. Nitrate nitrogen contents of both high and low level plots were significantly higher than that of the control plot in 1974, while that content of the high level plot was significantly higher than those of other plots in 1975. 6. Sodium content of all treatments showed a tendency to decrease as year advanced. 7. Phosphorus content of the low level plot was significantly higher than those of other plots in 1973, although those of both high and low level plots were significantly higher than the control plot in 1974 and 1975, respectively. 8. In comparisons with digestibility of each chemical composition in green forage, sun-cured hay and silage, digestibility of crude protein in both high and low level plots showed to be significantly higher than that of the control plots in green forage and sun-cured hay, respectively. 9. Silage qualities of all treatments were ranked excellent grade.

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An experiment was carried out to survey the possibility of cultivation of napier grass, a perennial grass originated from tropical Africa, as annual soiling crop in Gifu district. Napier grass could scarcely survive winter months outdoors in Gifu district, but the propagation by stem cutting stored in non-heated greenhouse or underground was very easy. When the cuttings were planted in early April, and transplanted on the field in mid or late May, three-times harvesting was possible until late October. In three-times harvesting, wide spacing of 5, 000 plants (200cm×100cm) and dense planting of 29, 000 plants (75cm×40cm) per ha, yielded 88.90t and 124.27t of green forage per ha, respectively. With two-times harvesting a year, napier grass yielded 161.41t of green forage per ha. In this harvesting, however, stems were hardened and the proportion of leaves was decreased. Growth of napier grass was very vigorous during warm season, from late June to early September, and daily increment in plant height attained up to 7.4cm. During this season, tillering was also vigorous and number of tillers doubled after each harvesting. Maximum number of tillers amounted to 113 per hill in wide spacing plot. The maximum yield of green forage per day was 1, 684kg per ha. High correlation with γ=0.964^<***> was found between average yields of green forage per day and mean daily air temperature during the growing season, and also γ=0.769^<**> between the yields of green forage and accumulated temperature during growing season.

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In order to obtain some information on the cycling of minerals in grasslands, composition and recovery of minerals in the excreta of adult dairy cattle (Holstein cows) were determined on the materials collected from the digestibility trials in stalls. Particular attention was given to the relationship between minerals in grasses and those in faeces. In the first experiment, materials were collected from dry cows in June, August and October, 1971. Minerals such as iron, manganese, copper and zinc were recovered in distinctly high amounts in the faeces collected in August. In the second experiment in July and October, 1972, composition and recoveries of minerals in the faeces, urine and milk were compared betwen dry and lactating cows. Calcium and phoshorus contents in the faeces and chlorine content in the urine from lactaing cows were lower than those from dry cows. The mineral contents in the urine varied among individual cows. In July, the total amount of iron in the faeces, urine and milk still had a trend of being recovered more than 100 per cent. It was also observed that potassium recovery in October was higher than that in July, and that its higher recovery was found mainly in the urine. Mineral components both from grasses and faeces were compared. Contents of such major faecal minerals with more than 80 per cent recovery as phosphorus, calcium and magnesium were 1.9 times as much as those of grasses. Contents of faecal trace elements with 100 per cent or more recovery, however, were 2.3 times as much as those of grasses.

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An experiment was conducted to investigate the early growth of warmseason grasses under the light competitive condition with the preceding cool-season grasses into which the former species were undersown. Three warm-season grasses, Kazungula setaria (Setaria anceps cv. Kazungula, abbreviated as S), Green panic (Panicum maximum var. trichoglume cv. Petrie, abbr. P), and Dallisgrass (Paspalum dilatatum, abbr. D) were grown under shaded condition of 22% (d-treatm.) and full daylight (1-treatm.). With regard to S, 38% (m-treatm.) was added. The shading treatments were applied from 29 Aug. 1974 when the grasses were sown in pots. Their growth were measured three times at intervals of a week. Results are summarized as follows, 1) The growth of each species was retarded by the shading treatment except the plant height (Table 1). The total plant dry weight under d-treatm. was 10% of 1-treatm.. The reduction was heavier in D comparing to P and S. 2) Under d-treatm., the total plant dry weight of S and D species was reduced to 4% of 1-treatm., and 6% in P, but under m-treatm. S maintained 30% after 40 days of treatment (Fig. 1). 3) In S, C/F ratio was increased with the growth under each light condition, and in P, it showed a slight increase in contrast with D, which showed reduction under d-treatm. (Fig. 2). 4) The reduction of RGR by the shading was small in P and S (Table 2). In case of P, increase of LAR by means of thinner leaf blade seemed to compensate the reduction of NAR under shade, and S gained the same compensation by raised distribution of produced dry matter into leaf portion. 5) Many factors must be taken into consideration to select suited species of warmseason grasses to undersowing. But above results show that P and S are thought to be superior from the view point of maintaining better dry matter production even in the shaded condition though these two were different in the mode of adaptation for the shade.

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Several experiments were carried out with the pelleted seed of Italian ryegrass made of poultry or dairy excreta as coating material to clarify the duration of its viability and suitable condition as seed-bed. Under natural room storage condition, the pellet seed retained its viability for about 6 months. Pot experiments using soil, dead leaf and humus as the surface media for sowing showed that the soil surpassed the others both in germination and early establishment of the pellet seed. And sufficient water supply was required when the coarse organic materials were used. Wooden box experiments under controlled precitation by means of a rainfall simulator were carried out to know the relation of the soil surface tilt and the precipitation velocity to the germination. Breaking down of the pellets and subsequent germination were delayed when the soil surface was sloped and it was faster under 10mm/hr of rainfall than 30mm. Field experiment indicated that that the removal of the dead leaf and humus layer on the soil top stimulated the estadlishment and early developement of the grass seedlings and raking after sowing proved to be an effective practice to promote the establishment.

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The purpose of this investigation was to examine the change of nitrate-N content and its distribution within the plant during the growth of forage turnip. The results obtained are as follows. 1. The nitrate-N contents in both the top and the root of turnip are markedly high in the early stage of growth and are about 10mg in average as NO_3-N per 1g in dry matter. From this stage onward, these contents decrease rapidly as the time proceeds and are almost kept constantly at low level in the latter stage of growth. 2. It is clear that the nitrate-N content of the root is higher than that of the top in the latter stage. 3. The ratios of nitrate-N in both parts of turnip are very high in the early stage of growth. This ratio in the top gradually decreases with aging, whereas the ratio in the root increases again at harvesting time after such a decrement as mentioned above. 4. The nitrate-N content of the petiole is higher than that of the blade, and that of tuber root is lower than that of another fibrous root. Tho older or outer leaves are found to be the lowest in total-N content, while the nitrate-N content is kept at nearly constant level in any leaves. 5. The application of barnyard manure does not necessarily result in increase of the nitrate-N content in both the top and the root of turnip. 6. It is suggested from this experiment that there is a possibility of nitrate poisoning for ruminant in the case of feeding large amounts of forage turnip with young leaves to it.

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Lupine (Lupinus luteus) was grown symbiotically or non-symbiotically at some levels of nitrogen fertilizer in order to examine the effect of the nodule formed under symbiotic condition for the growth of plant, the amount of nitrogen fixation and the chemical components of feed. The results obtained were as follows. 1. The total nitrogen content and the amount of total nitrogen of the nodulated plant were consistently higher than that of the non-nodulated plant grown at the same level of nitrogen fertilizer. The nodule formation and the symbiotic nitrogen fixation were supplication of nitrogen fertilizer in great quantities. 2. There were the remarkable differences of the chemical components of feed between the nodulated and the non-nodulated plant. Namely, the contents of crude protein and crude fiber in the nodulated plant were higher than that in the non-nodulated plant grown at the same level of nitrogen treatment. Besides, the content of nitrogen free extracts was markedly lower in the former than the latter. On the contrary, it was found that there are little differences described above between these plants, which are nearly equal not only on the growth but also on the amounts of total nitrogen per plant. 3. It was suggested from this experiment that the changes of chemical composition caused by nodule formation attribute to the function of symbiotic nitrogen fixation of nodule, not to the nodule formation itself or the other functions of nodule without nitrogen fixation.

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In order to investigate the effects of light intensity, inoculation and nitrogen application on a tropical legume Greenleaf desmodium, a sand culture experiment was conducted in a green house at Kyushu University. It included 4 treatments of IN, IO, ON and OO, i.e., with (I) or without (O) inoculation and with (N) or without (O) nitrogen application under light (L) or shade (S: relative light intensity was 30% of L) condition. Plants were sampled 7 times at 5 day intervals from the 7th day of treatment imposed. Results obtained are as follows, 1) The effect of N to increase dry matter weight was recognized under both light conditions of L and S. It however appeared greater and earlier under L than under S. I affected almost similar to N excluding delayed and small at the early stage. NAR and LAR behaved differently in accordance with the effects of N and I. 2) Number and weight of nodule were increased in IN more than in IO under L on the contraty to those obtained under S. 3) Nitrogen percentage in whole plants was higher in IO than in ON under both light conditions though the effect appeared earlier in ON. 4) Total non-structural carbohydrate contents in ON were decreased at the earlier growth periods followed by the lower value in IO and the lowest was observed in IN. 5) In view of the above described results, it might be concluded that the favor effects emerged from IN under L on dry matter and nitrogen contents were resulted from the facts that (1) at early experimental periods N application increased the number of nodule, which came from the increase of plant size and of translocated photosynthetic products into nodule, (1) consequently N application increased per nodule weight indicating active nitrogen fixation and (3) the inverse effect of nitrogen on the nodule activity was nullified by (1) and (2) at the later periods of the experiment.

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In order to investigate the effects of temperature, inoculation and nitrogen application on a tropical legume Greenleaf desmodium a sand culture experiment was conducted in a phytotron at Kyusu University. It included 4 treatments of IN, IO, ON and OO, i.e., with (I) or without (O) inoculation and with (N) or without (O) nitrogen application under 4 temperature conditions of 15°, 20°, 25° and 30℃. Plants were sampled 45 days after treatments were imposed. Results obtained are as follows, 1) The highest dry matter yield was obtained at 25℃ in all the combinations of inoculation and N application. The effect of N application was found at every temperature imposed, however that of inoculation was found only at 25℃. 2) Total number of nodule was largest at 25℃ and was not reduced by N application. 3) N concentration of whole plant of ON, IO and IN plots was increased at the lower, the higher and over all temperatures, respectively. TNC concentration of ON plot at all temperature range was higher than that of IO plot which showed a higher value at low temperature, and that of IN plot were declined at a higher range but raised at a lower range of temperature. 4) The effective temperature range of N application was wider than that of inoculation which functioned only at at optimal range. This may be attributable to that the nodule became parasitic in respect to carbohydrate economy at the higher temperature and lost activity at the lower temperature. Accordingly it can be stated that the inoculation attended with N application is most effective at the optimal temperature to stimulate seedling growth of this legume and a little effective at extremely low or high temperatures due to compensatory effect of applied N for ineffectiveness of inoculation in those conditions.

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In three seasons from spring to autumn (1970), this experiment was conducted to investigate the several factors affecting on the reliability of chromogen-chromic oxide ratio technique estimating the voluntary intake of grass and its digestibility of grazing steers. The pasture mainly consisted of the perennial ryegrass, and the growing stage of the grass differed in three seasons. The four experimental steers grazed on the pasture were given 15g of chromic oxide at 8:00 a.m. daily per head, during the experimental period. The analyses of chromogen and chromic oxide were performed with the feces sampled at 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. for three or five days after 7-day preliminary period. The chromogen concentration of grass sampled by the hand-clipping method was determined twice in each experimental period. The dry matter digestibility obtained by the method based on the fecal chromogen concentration was 74.4, 57.6 and 62.3% in three experimental period of spring, summer and autumn, respectively. The dry matter intaker calculated by the method based on the concentrations of two indicators (chromogen and chromic oxide) was 3.2, 1.9 and 2.0% of body weight of animal in three seasons in which the experiment was undertaken, respectively. It was considered that the low digestibilities in summer and autumn experiment were caused by low recovery rate of ingested grass chromogen, because the growing stages of summer and autumn grass were younger than spring grass which was late heading stage. The chromic oxide concentrations in feces sampled at 8:00 a.m. were apparently higher than in feces sampled at 4:00 p.m., in every sampling day. However, both concentrations of chromogen and chromic oxide excreted in feces varied considerably from day to day. From these results, it is suggested that greater accuracy of the estimates may be made by elongation of fecal sampling period and by corrective calculation for the imperfect recovery of ingested chromogen.

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Hole- and furrow seeding were examined to improve seedbed preparation for surface sowing with Dactylis glomerata, Festuca arundinacea, Eragrostis curvula and Trifolium repens on clay soil in plastic vat of 22×33×11cm and 1/5000 are plastic pots. Holes were made ranging 0.8, 1.6 and 2.4cm in diameter with the depth of 2cm. Seeds were sown in holes and fertilizers were broadcast. These treatments were compared with control plot broadcast both fertilizers and seeds in three replicates. In furrow seeding, three kinds of furrows were prepared varying 0, 1 and 2cm in depth with control plot of broadcast with fertilizers and seeds. Results obtained are as follows: 1) Three plots of hole treatments compared well with broadcast and smaller holes were better for seed germination and later growth for the species except F. arundinacea as the latter had a weak germination so that the effects of the treatments were unknown. 2) D. glomerata, E. curvula and T. repens responded well with furrow seeding treatments in their establishment and later growth as compared with broadcast of control. It was conculded that the two techniques could assure the seed germination and later growth of pasture species by promoting the microclimatic environments on soil surface.

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Perennial ryegrass produced on average 219mg ergot from a square meter of summer-saved pasture, and 15mg from normally grazed pasture. This depended on the increasing number of emerged heads and on the increasing weight of individual ergot in summer-saved pasture.

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