SOIL CONDITIONS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4877, 14 September 1925, Page 4

SOIL CONDITIONS.

NOT A DEAD MASS. CONTROLLING THE TEEMING LIFE Lord Ernie, president of the British Board of Agriculture during the war, in his books says : — “Soil conditions are much more amenable to human control than climatic conditions. Drainage, for instance, is a powerful cpntrblling agent, by no means adequately employed. The natural limitations may also be profoundly modified by cultivation. In this direction great advances may be expected. “We know that the soil is not a .dead mass of mineral particles. It is teeming with life. In the multitudinous struggle for existence which goes on beneath the surface each living organism influences the changes that affect the growth of plants. Science is making a determined effort to master this subterranean chemical laboratory and to direct its operations. If it succeeds —and it will—the effects will be far-reaching. “Clover is already one of the most valuable of pur crops. It is so, not merely because of the fodder that it supplies to cattle. It is so, also, because of its peculiar.power of enriching the soil with nitrogenous matter. Possibly science may be able to stimulate still further the- actiop of the nodules at the roots in which this fertilising power resides. But the potential value of the crop is as yet limited by two of its characteristics.

“It cannot be grown continuously on the same land, and it is liable to

more or less frequent failures, though these may, of course, be mitigated by an admixture of grass.. If the study of the biology of the soil splves the mystery of the failure and enables the farmers jto grow 1 the crop continuously on the same land ,the full potentialities Of clover will be utilised to immense advantage. ‘ “Increased control over climate by the use .‘of improved machinery, increased control of soil conditions as the result of the study of the physics of the soil, increased control of the foods appropriate to plant nutrition, are important steps in raising average yields toawrds the highest rec'ordeci yields. ‘‘Anbther.step is the increased command and use of the most prolific varieties, of seeds. Plant-breeding is the fairyland of agricultural science. No limit can be set to the possibilities in store, especially with the aid of a deeper knowledge of the physics bf the soil. “One example may illustrate the value of this collaboration. One serious difficulty in introducing the most prolific varieties of wheat is the weakness of the stem. The strength of the straw is only in part dependent on the plant itself. Another part depends on soil conditions. Solve that mystery and the plant breeder will do the rest."