Nov Farm Wonder.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 November 1921, Page 4

Nov Farm Wonder.

TURNING STRAW INTO MANURE, j (By Sir William Beach Thomas). j A notable discovery, of especial interest to gardeners and fanners, lias just passed out of th# laboratory into the practical stage. A bacillus with such a powerful digestion that it can ‘brenli down” j cellulose the toughest part of vege- j table growth was discovered and mill- : tiplied at Kothainsted some while *g <! - ft has so flourished that its digestive , powers have passed all expectation and j it is now capable of taking the place j of cattle and horses. ! The special work: to which it Js 1 being harnessed is the “breaking down” j u£ straw. With the help oT some other kindly bacteria and bacilli it will convert straw into the best 'hum- . yard muiiim'.” . 1 This achievement lias been watched , for sum,, nioiiftrs in the liboratoir wit.' unvarying success. Straw has been converted into the best inanoic without the aid of any animal big enough to he visible. The method is now proving npudly successful on a large scale. Tons of straw so treated are quickly and cheaply converted into a. fertiliser that has all the mechanical as well as the chemical virtue of the ordinary farmyard manure*. Tlie straw is twice watered. then treated with a mild sprinkling of a nitrogenous solution : and tlq. benevolent bacteria go to work at once, multiplying into incalculable million* within a few days. Fanners who have seen the product arc convinced of its value, which indeed has been proved by a number of plot tests. The discovery is timely as tin' supply of manure has already dwindled much below the demand owing to tin’ extinction of the omnibus horses and other animals. Straw, now as j/ood as valueless thus heroines a source of wealth. Tin* present idea is to e.juip a travelling apparatus for treating I armors* straw, hut as yet- endowment is insufficient. There seldom was a heller example ot the value of research. First, two men of seienee with no thought of particular application diseover isolate and etiltivate a microscopic liar powers are tested and proved. Then other men of science, knowing of a particular need, carry on the work of the pure scientist and apply the discovery to current needs. Finally we may hope that, it will he made available for cultivators the wot Id over and increase the productivity of the soil, threatened hy the suhstitution j of oil-power for horse-power Nor is this all. The new facts have other applications. This artificial manure will produce a valuable gas. whether for heating nr li;'htinjr. Quite new methods htiv** been found of recovering nitrogen (inm|i the most valual*h> of chemicals), that, would otherwise l>e lost, from sewajjv and some other substances. There never was a time when the endowment of agricultural research promise! such ijiiick and far-renchine: returns.