FARMING NOTES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 198, 12 August 1940, Page 3

FARMING NOTES

THE . ADVANTAGES OF THOROUGH CULTIVATION IN ROOT CROP PRODUCTION ,1 '' ' By C. R. Taylor, Department of Agriculture, Whakatane. Editor's Note: This article was the subject of' a by Mr C. R. Taylor, who dew livered the talk from IYA recently. Twelve months ago at this time the Empire; -was at peace, and there was no abnormal • demand on farmers for additional'.■ production . of crops and general foodstuffs. Today, however, under the stress of an active international crisis everything has changed, and the farmer has been entrusted with a role to play that no other section of the community can possibly undertake. • successfully. That, role is the vital one of food production qn an ever increasing seal:; Upon this rests, not only the maintenance of a healthy physique in th- fighting forces, but a 1 so the ability of the people at home to work Jong hours, often un- ( T er the- most trying circumstances, to maintain the military machine at the highest level of efficiency. In this connection it has been apt-. lv seated by a prominent personality in Great Britain that it is conceivable that the war will be won by the nation with the last week of rations. Let us see to it, therefore, that nothing is left undone by the farmers of this to ensure that the Mother Country is thay nation; otherwise all we value ano hold dear in life will be wrested . from us to satisfy the lust of an unscrupulous conqueror. An Urgent Request. AH farmers will r/'.v be aware that New Zealand has been urgently requested by the British Government to increase our export of eertain lines of foodstuffs. Butter requires to be maintained at least at the present level and cheese and bacon to be increased by 10,000 tons and 10,000 tons respectively. Thrse are the main items that we have to concentrate on but there are. of course, others as well. To make- possible this extra production as quickly as possible, we cannot afford to wait fo r an increase in the number of our productive animals. That Avould take far too long. The o,nly o'>her way open to us by which we can hope to reach our objective is by better feeding the dairy cows and the pigs that we have on hand. Now this is not a difficult task if farmers will only realists that crops—like animals —also readily respond to jjist that little extra care and attention to details. Since crops of all kinds play an important part in the nutrition of animals, and since better nutrition has to be relied upon to bring about the increased production of butter, cheese, bacon, etc., that is neded, then it is obvious that increased attention to crop production is also necessary. Obtaining the Maximum YieldNow there arc many ways in which crop yield can be substantially increased. The sowing of only first-class seed is one of them. More liberal manuring is another. Then there is also the matter of more thorough cultivation and this, to my mind, is probably the very best method available to the average farmer of bringing about the desired result; for it is no exaggeration to say that more crops come to nothing each year, through poor cultivation than from any other cause. To say that such a position is to be regretted is, indeed, to put it mildly, for economically this sort of thing has dealt heavy blows to the Dominion's welfare,, for many years past. To-d,ay, however, with the war situation as it is everything possible must be done to produce to the utmost, and I would accordingly commend to all farmers the necessity of really concentrating or. the thorough cultivation of their crops, so that the maximum yields can be obtained wherewith to enable our stock to becom? more and more productive. If farmers will only do this —and I am sure they will when the need is pointed ou f to them —then a very decided step in the Dominion's Avar effort wil-

have been taken. With these fcAV gaeneral remarks' I will now dwell l'or a short time on the sulaject of my talk to-night that is, "The Advantages of Thorough Cultivation in Root Crop Production." ComposiJioin of Soil. Before actually dealing with the practical side of cultivation I would first of all like to say a few things about the soil, for then it will be easier to understand why thorough cultivation as opposed to the haphazard variety is so essential. "Well, in the first place,, a soil is. hot a deacl, inert substance that, many tillers of the land seem to imagine it is. The "more fertile a soil is the more alive it is, and for this'reason it cannot lie abused indefinitely without repercussions of the worst kind. Admittedly the bulk of nearly all soils is made up of lifetiijie mineral particles, but ; this, of itself, would be little b,etter than the Sahara Desert from an agricultural viewpoint were it not for the millions of bacteria and other living organisms that give it life. It is, therefore, largely to these microorganisms that we owe a soil's fertility and just as any other form of life can be destroyed or rendered unhealthy, so can bacteria, fungi, etc, be prevented from fulfilling their life's work. How? you may ask. Well, the surest means are by lack of* drainage, lack of soil warmth and lack of atmospheric oxygen. In other words by the absence of complete soil aeration brought about by poor cultivation. Organic Functions. A question that may well be asked at this stage is: "How do soil bac teria and other micro organisms function and- to what purpose." In answer to that question it may be stated that bacteria may be broadly arranged into two main groups —namely those that can only live in the presence of air and those in the absence of aii\ Both kinds live on the organic matter of a soil and have for their purpose the decay or partial decay of this material. Bacteria that live without atmospheric oxygen can only reduce the dead tissue of plants to the stage known as.peat and thus cold, water-Jogged, soil conditions are usually associated with this particular group. On the other hand, however, the oxygen requiring group of bacteria can accomplish the final breaking down of organic matter into ammonia and nitrates which are, of course, essential plant foods. Both of these changes go on in a soil'but-the land that is best aerated as the result of adequate cultivation is the one most enriched in natural plant foods. It can readily be seen, therefore, that bacterial activity is of paramount importance to the growth of crops, but this can only be the outcome of conscientious soil treatment by waj'. of cultivation and drainage where necessary, All farmers appreciate the value of humus in their soils but such material would be of little or no use if it were not for the micro-organisms that reduce it to a form, available to plant life. Increasing Soil's Reserve. Still onother important kind of bacteria is that which lives in close association with leguminous plants such as clovers, lucerne, peas and beans etc. They possess the ability of greatly increasing the soil's reserve of nitrogen by drawing nitrogen from the atmosphere and manufacturing it into a suitable, p.lant food. These bacteria draw their own food from the host plants to which they attach themselves, and cannot live a free existence. To this extent they are parasitic, but pince they in return supply the plant with necessary nitrogen the term is not altogether correct. Like the. oxygen requiring l)acteria previously referred to, these nitrogen fixing bacterid klso demand an aerated soil that is both warm and moist. Hence, proper cultivation is again called for if the health and yielding capacity of crops is to be high. » (To be continued)