IMPORTANCE OF CULTIVATION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 81, 30 October 1939, Page 6

IMPORTANCE OF CULTIVATION

C. 11. Taylor, Fields Instructor,

yYhakatane,

"The ground that I manured ov dug for them Avas not great." This is a quotation from Defoe's famous book, "llobinson Ciusoc, written in 17.10, and it clearly indicates that the original meaning of manure Avas to till the soil by hand. The people of Defoe's day knew nothing of artificial manures as Ave know them and the wonder!ul as-

sistance they can be as crop producers; all they knew was that through soil tillage was the only means available to them of securing the harvest that was so essential to their existence. Accordingly

even- effort was made by way of cultivation to ensure that the soil yielded its utmost bounty.

Whether or not the processes which accompany soil tillage. were understood by the rural! folk of two hundred years ago is really immaterial. The fact remains that they fully recognised the importance, of

thoroughly perparing the soil in readiness to take the crops that means so much to them. ll' soil tillage or manuring was such a vital necessity to these people, is it not equally so with us to-day? Definitely it is, and tor the following reasons.

Four Reasons.

In the first place, proper cultivation is very nccessarv for good germination, especially of the smaller kinds of seed. The soil must be worked to a fine tilth before a good seed bed can be prepared, and if

this is not done a reduction in crop yield will assuredly result. Secondly, cultivation not only facilitates drainage in the top six to nine inches of soil where this is required, thus tending to render it warmer and sweeter, but it also conserves soil moisture when this is necessary

Thirdly, soil tillage allows free access to the oxygen of the atmosphere. This is most important, as without oxygen, certain bacteria in the soil which break down organic

comopounds containing nitrogen (that is, dccaving matter) into a form that plants can assimilate could not possibly live. In such an event nitrogen starvation would result. and tiie effect of this condition is best illustrated by reference to

a pasture growing in a rather water logged soil. The leaves of grasses are a sickh' .yellowish green, while tlie clovers are most conspicuous by their absence. Moreover, oxygen is directly required by plants for proper root development, and in some soils it is also vitally necessary to

counteract certain toxic substances that are harmful to plant life.

Fourthly, cultivation encourages the decomposition of mineral matter into plant foods, and finally, but not least, the land and growing crops are kepi free from those vieious robbers—weeds. Soil Tillage. It will be slear, I think, from e\ hat has been stated that soil tillage—and by that I mean thorough cultivation and not mere surface scratching as is so frequently practised nowadays—is really of fundamental importance if the maximum economic, field is to be derived from the vast resources of the earth's surface. Anything short of adequate cultivation must of sheer necessity reduce crop yields,, for there is absolutely nothing—not even artificial fertilisers—that can fulfil all of the functions of the simple act of soil

cultivation

Probably the two main reasons why cultivation is not now given the same degree of attention that it was at one time are: (1) Artificial manures are now manufactured to supply the principal plant foods which at one time could only be wrested from the soil by intensive tillage, and therefore from this particular angle the need no longer appears to exist for iv-a 1 ! ifon of this w'-rk, and ('?■) lh« c;>nvparafive complicity o r khe ac L o ! ' ■•'u.Uiva ! io-i lends to detract i'rcnr 'fs importance.