OTAGO AGRICULTURAL PAPERS.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 81, 27 January 1876, Page 7

OTAGO AGRICULTURAL PAPERS.

One of the effects, red - -.clover has as a hay crop is to fertilize'the land on which it grows by admitting beneath the ground light, moisture and heat, these elements being' transmitted by means of the leaf which is the active food manufacturing v agent for the. whole' plant. Thus red clover having' a vigorous surface life requires more than ordinary nourishment, and accordingly sends down its-roots and feeders to considerable depths. Its strong root by perpendicular and lateral compression pulverizes the 'subsoil, and admits with it light and moisture, together with vegetable heat; causes, the action of those acids which, are required with water to form the. solvents of the constitutents of this plants. 7, It has been found by practical experimental farmers that a red clover paddock- twice mowed the same season, yielded a better grain crop when broken up afterwards, than a sheep and cattle -.field alongside it after receiving the manure, of the season. The foregoing remarks, and>the iollowing reasons show ' truth of this seeming contradiction. The stockfed pasture was 'trodden so close as to prevent the descent of 7the moisture, light and heat to a any distance below the surface, while the grasses were so crushed and disturbed, that they were unable to perform their natural functions. Then the manure only found its way a few inches below the ground, and chiefly became evaporated before the ploughing, the remainder being reduced to the coarser or fibrous parts, which require rotting before becoming of use to the soil. It is well known that long fallowing is a great restorative to the exhausted soils, and the reason is, that the land being thrown up and loosened, allows the elementary action of the season. The practice adopted this season by Air Joseph Parker, of the' Grange, Tokomairiro, is a very good one, viz., that of sowing his meadow lands in spring with three bushels of chimney soot to the acre. Soot is a great absorbent of ammonia, and is neither more nor less than charcoal dust emitted in the smoke vapour of wood and coal fires, and charcoal, it is well known is capable of absorbing 100 times its own bulk of ammonia. Soot thus becomes one of the best fertilizers known, besides giving* an enormous supply of woody fibre to the ground which enables the plant to produce a corresponding amount of stem and root. With almost unlimited resources in the way of soot and wood ashes, particularly the latter, it seems extraordinary that there should be so great a waste of material as we find in Otago. Wood ashes contain a considerable amount of potash and carbon; this forms carbonate of potash, and thus becomes another most" important and valuable manure. ]n. Milton we have Mr George Wilson's large saw-mills, producing an immense quantity of sawdust and waste wood. In Invercargill furnaces are built so as to consume this debris. Why oou'ld not the. sawdust be reduced to ash at Mr Wilson's mill ? If the ashes were carefully cooled and stored away from the wet, they would readily bring three shillings a bag, arid prove to turnip growers even better than bone dust, as'the turnip is naturally a potash plant. ' The lye obtained from these ashes is very useful to printers' for washing their formes, &c, . and we make no doubt that Air Wilson would receive order.- 1 from the. local newspapers for that purpose. Potash is .also used in the pottery art, soap making, and an endless variety of ways.