SCIENTIFIC FARMING

Gisborne Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1573, 2 October 1905, Page 3

SCIENTIFIC FARMING

As the microbe plays such an important part in the well - being or otherwise of our everyday life, so it

bids fair to revolutionise some c.. our farming methods. Nitrogen, one of the most essential, and at the same time most expensive of plant foods to purchase in the shape of manure, bids fair to become the cheapest when, it is fully understood bow by the means of micro-organisms tbe enormous amount of nitrogen in tbe atmosphere we breathe, can be brought into practical use by means of the said organisms. It was observed by tbe Romans that after the growth of legumes the land was left in a richer condition than before, but the reason of tnis was then of course, not fully understood. During the early part of the last century many eminent British and foreign agricultural chemists investigated this matter, amongst whom may be mentioned the names of Nobbe, ; Bousangault, Hebreigal, Wilfaith, amongst foreign chemists, and also

the Into Sir J. B. Lawoa and Sir H’ Gilbort, of the world-famous agrioultural experimental station at Kotnamsted, England; tho latter scientist carrying on vast numbers of exact experiments bearing on tho question of the fixation of free, nitrogen by leguminous orops extending over some 18 years; and within the last year or so Professor Moore, of U.S.A. Department of Agriculture, has shown how tho micro-organisms can be made use of in a practical manner to inooulate soils so as to produce great increase of leguminous crops in soils which wore heretofore unsuitod for their cultivation.

It may be tbat these recont discoveries of the powers of the nitrogen fixing organisms may lead to a revolui tion in our methods of farming, and New Zealand, as in other matters, is not lagging behind the rest of the ’ world. The A. and P. Food Co., Ltd., of Wellington, were not slow to perceive the possibilities of this new idea, and their chemist, Mr H. W. Lawrence, F.O.S. (who, before coming to the colony, had the advantage ot being in charge of tho nitrogen fixa* tions investigations of Messrs Lawes and Gilbert, of Rotliamsted for something over ten years), set to work to find some means by which the facing community of this colony could have the organisms delivered to them in such a form that they would re* quire no treatment or technical knowledge in application by the farmer himself. In this matter he has been perfectly successful, and it is due to the enterprise of this local concern, tho A. and P. Food Co., that farmers i can now procure in small bottles sufficient organisms to inoculate eithel half or one acre of soil for a smal charge without fear of failure on their part from want of technical knowledge or scientific skill; as is necessary with tho imported organisms, which require considerable treatment when put into the farmers’ hands, and which are often useless on account of loss of vitality due to their being latent during transport.