COLONIAL FARMING.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1965, 11 June 1880, Page 4

COLONIAL FARMING.

LOONTBIBITTaD.] The method of colonial farming is so extremely simple, and the annual operations of the most seientiSo colonial farmers might be stated in so little space, that it would be rather a difficult task, and one requiring a very fertile brain, to write a lengthy work on the subject, such as are published in Great Britain on agricultural subjects. Yet the value of any system does not necessarily consist in its being simple or elaborate. The best style of farming is that which is the most profitable, but it cannot be judged from the results of a few years; it must prove itself to bo able to stand the test of time before it can be pronounced satisfactory. If, at the end of a few years, the farmer finds that his land is as fertile as when he commenced operations, then his management has been good; but if the soil has in any way lost its productive powers it is a proof of defective management. The fertile elements of the soil are the farmer’s capital, and if he abstract annually from the soil a larger portion of these elements than is replaced either by artificial means or by the action of the atmosphere, then it follows that he must become every year a poorer man with regard to the yield of his crops. The generality of farmers trust very largely to the atmosphere for the restoration of soil, and consider that a naked fallow for a time, a crop of turnips, or a few years under grass renews the strength of the land sufficiently to bear a course of straw crops. The atmosphere only supplies the organic food of plants, which consists of carbon, nitrogen, and the constituents of water; bat the inorganic or mineral substances can only be supplied to the plant by the interposition of the labor of man after the original supply which existed in the soil has been withdrawn. Although inorganic substances are indispensably necessary in the soil, yet they form a very small portion of the food of plants. A soil that contains a larger proportion of organic substances, and is deficient in mineral matter, is not suited for grain crops, as it throws a very heavy crop of straw, but only a light yield of grain. A superabundance of manure will have the same effect on a cereal crop, as is shown by the place on which the straw heap has rotted away or has been burnt. The extent to which the soil suffers by the various crops raised upon it is chiefly regulated by the manner these crops are disposed of. For instance, a crop of wheat removes from the soil, during its growth, a large quantity of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and other valuable mineral constituents, and the greater part of this crop, namely, the straw, is returned to the land in the shape of farmyard manure ; yet, as the'greater part of the more important materials are situated in the grain, which is sold off the form, the exhaustive effect of this crop is accounted for. A crop of Swede turnips require as much material from the soil for its development as the wheat crop, but as this kind of produce is generally consumed on the ground where it is grown, a less amount of material is lost to the soil, because in this case the greater part of the nitrogen and mineral constituents of the crop is returned to the soil. The fertility of the soil is impaired by cultivation, chiefly through the loss of inorganic substances, or mineral food of plants, which is supplied solely by the soil, while the organic food, which consists principally of carbonic acid of the atmosphere is, practically speaking, inexhaustible. The system of artificial manuring, as practised in the old country by the use of guano, bone dust, superphosphate of lime, &0., is altogether too costly and elaborate for a young colony, but the question of manuring to a certain extent will force itself upon the attention of farmers more and more every year, as the supply of new land becomes exhausted. Ploughing in green crops has been suggested as a cheap and efficient method of manuring. Where green crops are to be employed for enriching a soil they should be ploughed in, if possible, when in flower, or at the time when the blossom is beginning to appear, for at this period they contain the largest quantity of soluble substance and their leaves are most active in forming nutritive matter. Green crops, or any kind of fresh vegetable matter, require no preparation to fit them for manure. The decomposition slowly proceeds beneath the soil; the soluble matters are gradually dissolved and the slight fermentation that goes on, checked by the want of a free communication of air, tends to render the woody fibre soluble and without occasioning the dissipation of gaseous matter. Farm yard manure is an excellent and economical material for imparting fertility to the land, and one which occupied the first place among manures before the art of tilling the soil attained such a high degree of excellence, involving the use of artificial manures. According to Professor Yollcker, farmyard manure chemically considered must be regarded as a perfect and universal manure, because it contains all the constituents which our cultivated crops reanire to come to perfection, and is suited for almost every description of agricultural produce, and by chemical analysis shows that the fertilising constituents are present in slates of combination which appear to be especially favorable to the luxuriant growth of crops. In considering the question whether the difference in the quantity of produce grown after manuring is sufficient to cover the increased cost of production in comparison with an vmmanured crop, it should bo remembered that the effect of any manure cannot bo judged from the result of one season Soma manures do not take immediate effect, as they require time to become thoroughly assimilated with the soil and fit to be taken up as food by the roots of plants. Every farmer ought at least to return the straw to the soil by some means or other. If he has not cattle in sufficient numbers to convert it readily into manure, he should allow it to remain in heaps until it becomes so rotten that it may be ploughed in without causing tho ground to lay hollow and dry, or if spread on the surface of grass lauds in the autumn, that tho soluble constituents may be

washed into and incorporated with the soil. Some caution is necessary in using artificial manures, and it Is also requisite the farmer should know something of the chemical nature of his soil to guard against mistakes. These manures are of two classes —those which add to the real strength of the soil, and those which only stimulate it to exertion. Some soils are what are termed lazy; they have sufficient strength, but the elements are not in a state to be readily assimilated by the plants. When this is the case a stimulating manure should be applied. Other soils are poor and require manure of a substantial nature, but in this case stimulants are to be avoided, otherwise the soil will waste its energies during the earlier stages of the crops, but will be unable to mature the grain. Deep cultivation is undoubtedly one of the great secrets of successful farming. By this means, new stores of fertilizing materials which the subsoil contains are added to the surface soil. Deep ploughing and subsoiling also promotes the drainage of the surface, and besides, admits of the free penetration of the air through the soil, which tends to keep it in a sweet and healthy condition. As a means of breaking down and pulverising stiff clayey land, winter fallows are greatly to be recommended. By this plan, great advantage is gained from the effect of frost, which converts the moisture in land into ice, forcing the lumps of clay asunder by_ the power of expansion. In thawing, the ice again becomes fluid, and the earth crumbles down into a fine mellow state, allowing absorption of ammonia and other fertilizing constituents of the atmosphere.