THE LODGING OF CEREAL CROPS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 441, 21 February 1912, Page 7

THE LODGING OF CEREAL CROPS.

What a feeling of disappointment comes ever a farmer on seeing his crop of wheat or barley that looked over night so promising lying bent to the ground instead of standing up to ripen under the full effect of the sun and air—and worse luck such a disaster is most likely to happen to a splendid crop. A storm of heavy rain or a strong wind does the mischief but the farmer can avoid the risk to a certain extent by adopting certain measures when growing cereals no lands shown by nature. The principal thing is to avoid the application of nitrogen to the crop; as Mr Hall of Rothamsted has pointed out "as the amount of nitrogen is increased the development of leaf and shoot increases then green colour deepens and maturity becomes more and more deferred so that a crop grown on 'and over-rich in nitrogen always tends to be late and badly ripened, and to show a profusion of leaf —characters which, in the case of a grain crop, often result in 'lodging' before harvest." On soils where there is a risk farmers should sow seed of a resisting variety; he should help the straw by not drilling the seed too, close, and he should take care that the plant during growth has an ample supply of available phosphate of lime. Thi3 constituent seems to be the chief factor in thickening the cell walls of the straw.