Lime in Clay Soils.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 144, 1 April 1909, Page 4

Lime in Clay Soils.

A function of lime is the amelioration of the texture ol heavy soils. When a heavy, plastic clay is wet, pressed into a cake, and then dried, it becomes brick like in texture; but if a small portion of lime can be incorporate with the clay before manipulation, it will crumble easily between the fingers after drying. For this purpose lime may be very usefully employed on many of the more refractory clay soils, using up to several tons per acre. Clays thus treated will become more friable.will respond more readily to cultivation and manuring, and will not pack so readily under rain.

Sheep have excellent digestions, and hence they utilise feed to the fullest degree. There is only one known method of maintaining soil ferility, and that is by putting back into the soil the elements which have been taken from it by the harvested crops, viz.: nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid. Usually sheep get very little credit for the work they do in keeping the farm clean. The drink, known as "Koumiss" is prepared from mares' milk. It is widely used among the peoples of southwestern A tia at the present day. Asses' milk has been used from a remote period for human consumption. It was esteemed by the ancient Romans, and there is a certain demand for it in London at the present day for invalids' use, A man who keeps a poor cow when he might have a good one displays no great business tact. Goats give milk which is richer than the average cow's, and it may be drunk with perfect confidence. The Nebraska Experiment Station has demonstrated the fact that a cow reaches her richest production of butter fat before she does the greatest flow of milk. One reason why some farmers do not get as much from gtheir land as they should is owing to the fact that they do not get their land in proper order. Because £2O will not buy the same stamp of horse now as it would 15 years ago does not prove that horses have fallen off in quality. It merely establishes that they have gone up in value. Help to develop schools. The rural school is the place where 96 per cent. of our farmers are made. It is, therefore, the farmers' school. Sheep require the constant care of someone familiar with their needs and habits if they are to be kept in large numbers.