SOIL FERTILITY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 2, 12 January 1942, Page 2

SOIL FERTILITY

REPLACING FERTILISERS FARMYARD MANURES In times of peace our farming economy is built largely around our ability to import . supplies of the various fertilisers on the market. Thus we gather phosphate rock from North' Africa and the Pacific Islands, potash largely from European countries, sulphate of ammonia and ni-l-ratc of soda from European and American sources, sulphur for the manufacture of superphosphate from Japan, and guanos from Pacific and Indian Ocean Islands. l'n the great majority of cases, these sources are new closed to us. fn the few remaining instances, supplies will be procurable conditionally upon our Navy being able to maintain control of the seas. Even with a preponderance of strength in this direction, within the past year a few enemy raiders demonstrated .that our supplies could be seriously menaced. Consequently, with the entry of Japan into the vvar —a country with a navy of-re-putedly great strength—the prospects of maintaining normal' supplies of phosphate from the Pacific cannot be regarded as encouraging. Farmyard Manure 1 as Substitute Other means of maintaining soil fertility must be explored. Liming on many soils will assist materially for a few years. Better subdivision with rotational grazing will also assist. So will such factors as pasture cultivation, topping in the summer, and the saving of all hay and silage possible so as to minimise waste and reduce the winter demands on pasture alone. However, none of the.->e piocedures, desirable as> they may be, will actually add something to soil fertility. They may set processes in action which resu'.t in a release of fertilising ingredients, but they do not contribute anything to the actual fertility of the soil.

The only material available to a farmer when ordinary fertilisers are unprovable is the droppings of his stock. This farmyard manure, so far as this country is concerned, has been badly neglected in the past. Perhaps it was easier to topdress from a bag; perhaps its was not fully appreciated: but the fact remains'that this mannve has not been us'.d to anything like the extent warranted except by a few. The Perfect Fertiliser How many people realise that, in farmyard manure, we have a'most a complete fertiliser, rich in phos-

phates, potash and nitrogen? How many appreciate the fact that a cow will return to the land a greatei quantity of fertiliser than the average farmer applies to the land on which she grazes? Finally, how many of those who do realise this fact take steps to exploit the value of this material? More often one sees; iiehls a mass fo dung in the winter, to be succeeded in the spring by badly-tuftdd fields. To utilise this material to best advantage, regular chain harrowing must be practised. Some do so after every grazing, and undoubtedly improve their pastures as a result. In addition, shed cleanings should 'be carted out and spread evenly over paddocks in rotation. Firm droppings can be roughly scattered and then pulverised with barrows, while liquid manure can be taken out in tanks. A description of tanks for this purpose appeared in a recent Journal of Agriculture, and can be obtained on application. The point to realise now, however, is that fertilisers are going to be even harder to get, that we must look for alternatives to the usuail fertilisers, and that the outstanding one at the present time is farmyard manure.