Farm and Garden

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 185, 26 August 1909, Page 3

Farm and Garden

THE ART OF MANURING. The art of manuring <• in providing, by the applicat n of manures suitably chosen, for the presence in the soil of all the prinicpal foods of the * plant in sufficient quantity and in a state in which the plant can make use of them. Plants do not live on a single nour- * , isbing substance, but on a food com- ! posed of various nourishing substances. This is a truth which has constantly to . be borne in mind. Thus, if only one of the necessary ingredients of the food of the plant be t wanting, or be present in insufficient » quantity, the plant cannot develop and ) thrive to perfection. A plant can form no leaves, no stems, and no grain from nitrogen or phosphoric acid or potash alone; the several Tfiuristmig materials must act together, and each must be available in proper quantity. For instance, oats are capable of producing a crop of 11, 5001b from SOlb of nitrogen, JPOIb potash, and 50lb of phosphoric acid; but if. besides the 1091b of ]>otash and 50lb of phosphoric acid, only 401b of nitrogen be present in the soil in a form in which the plants can take it up, only the half of the crop can b*» produced. In practice, the question for the farmer is: "How can I furnish to my crops nitrogen, phosphocric acid, and 5 I potash in the best forms and at the I least cost?" UN'BURNT LIMESTONE. I The eivdence in favour of using ground . jar.d unbumt limestone for crop 3of all I kinds is inrceasing. Some "tall** in | ! formation conic 3 from the United States, where they have been trying as much as six to eight tons per acre of powdered raw limestone rock with the most astonishing resutl3 on lucerne and clover. They find that the powdered rock i.l better than the burnt stone becnusc it is l«*s:; caustic and boes not waste the hunuis in the soil, an important point in its favour, and boes not "burn" the plants. On the other hand its effect is equally good at neutralising the acid orsournc3S in the „ soil, and sourness is one of the principal causes of the failure of lucerne, ' clover, beans, peas, or other legume. Apart from these results manurially or chemically, there is the fart that caustic or freshly burnt lime is a terrible kind of stuff to use. It burns the skin get 3 into your eyes, burns your boots and the harness on the hor.°c and is altogether a condemned nuisance to the workmen and horses who handle it. and as all tests tend to show j that the same results are obtainable in ■ the Io»k run with raw powder, the comj fort of handling it ought to balance the question in its favour. For equal distribution of material like this it i:; desirable to use a machine, but in the absence of this the ordinary drill will do very well. Thousands of tons of | slaj* and other dry jw»wd«-ry manures j are put on annually with a drill of any ' make used ;m a broad ca -ter with the I coulteri* taken olf and there could be ; no better way of putting on linieston«jjowder. One man and one horye can get over ten arrest daily if the manure is set ready for him in bag?, and in this country from i»» to 'JO cwt. per iirre has yivc j:ov! results, but mere may usefully be Riven. RAPE FOR PIGS. i j There can l*« mnl«>ubt that in the tcuiij omical production of pork the use of | rape is entitled to a much more general I ure than it ha.3 Wen given in this j. country in the past. IU cultural ; requirements are very simple, and wh*>r givf-n a well manured piece of ground a reasonably large amount of moisture, and a fair chance, it is a very heavy crop|>er. COLOUR OF ARTIFICIAL MANURES. The appearance, smell, and colour of artificial manure? are no guide as to their value: the only true test in buying is chemical analysis, although the best test is made by the crop itself. Sulphate of ammonia is a substance which is very variable in appearance: it may be red or white or yellow or blue, without any real difference in the quality. Similarly potash salts, and especially kainit, is subject to considerable variation in colour. It may be light grey or yellow or light red, but the i tint of colour has absolutely nothing to do with its fertilising value. Superphosphate may lie a light grey, or a dark grey, or a brown; its tint ■ simply depends on the colour of the raw material from which itjs manufactured. The farmer need not trouble about the tint so long as the percentage of phosphate is up to the guaranteed standard. In bone manures some farmers like to see pieces of bone, looking like plums in a plum pudding, and they regard their appearance as evdience of the good character of the manure. They are nothing of the sort, and very likely have been purposely put in to i catch the farmer's eye. In a properly made bone manure the bone material is ground fine, and so changed in appearance by the action of the acid it cannot be seen. IMPORTANCE OF SUCCULENCE. )Vater is an im|>ortant ingredient in i grass and all green as well as in roots, and ought not to be disparaged. So wonderfully is water incorporated in these foods ias to prevent ail sense of wateriness or dilution. There is more water in a turnip or swede than in many liquids milk, for exampleand yet a sliced turnip will scarcely damp a blotting paper. In summer the succulence of mange] wurzel and fresh fodder is of the greatest importance, and it has been said of mangel that in summer it appproaches cake and com in value for nutrient purposes tt is therefore difficult to estimate the value of succulence, although to the analyst it is never credited with any pecuniary value. Hay and water are. however, inferior to fresh grass and delicious fruits, such as peaches, must be more nutritious than desiccated fruit and a glass of water. These are matters beyond chemistry, but are thoroughly apprecitead by stockowners. The water in roots, fodder, and fruit i.f so intimately connected with the tissues as to be no longer water, although it may be driven jofT by the heat in that form. It is really juice, ; and as such roach mare valuable than ! the dry remnant which remains after i evaporation.