HARNESSING MICROBES

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 49, 21 November 1919, Page 7

HARNESSING MICROBES

NEW SOURCE OP FERTILITY. A completely pew virtue has been discovered in autumn weather. Tho microbes of the soil, notably those which make it fertile, are apt to ca' cauny and go slow in the winter season, and are found to be much more active in autumn than at anv other time of tho year. The discovery of this little fact means, according to one expert, a large permanent increase, to the fertility of acres. The reason for his belief is this-. Now the tractor is in general uso, fields nro ploughed' as soon as they are cut. On one farm where the employment nnd production figures of the miserobes were carefullv studied, the tractors got to work on the fields in the very trail of the cutters, and the fields wero all ploughed within a day or two of the enrrvina of the grain. A specialist gave five reasons for tho advantages resulting from this:— 1. Ploughing is easier because- tho ground is soft under tho standing corn. 2. A seod-beo' is prepared enrly so fliat sowimr can follow ni any desired moment. 3. The microbes are now much more active in reducing tho stubble and old roots into manure than tliey are at. any other season. •(•. The earlier wheat is 60wn the better it yields. 5. Weed seeds are encouraged to sprout at once, and eo can l>e completely killed now. instead of lying doggo till spring ana 1 coming up among tho crop. Mr. llolbrook Gaskell, of Erindale, Frodsham, Chester, a director of tho United Alkali Company, who died on July 2, son of the late llolbrook Gaskell, closely identified with tho development of tho chemical industry in the Widnos district, has loft a fortune of the valuo of .£.'128,82-1, tho net personalty beiiig £325,222.