VALUE OF FALLOWING.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 570, 24 May 1913, Page 2

VALUE OF FALLOWING.

AMOUNT OF MOISTURE CONSERVATION. Mr R. W. Peacock, manager of the Bathurßt Experiment Farm, New South Wales, has made an interesting computation in relation to the censer* vation of soil moisture. He states that it has been determined at the farm that an amount of available moisture equivalent to ten inches of rainfall can be conserved in the first ten feet of soil by fallowing to assist th 9 growth of the crop. Assuming that one-tbird of the present area under wheat in the State — 2,100,000 acres —was similarly fallowed, the moisture conserved would approximately equal an applcation of 24 inches of water over the whole of the irrigable area cf 300,000 acres of the Braren Jack scheme.

The present area under wheat is less than one-tenth of the heat producing zone, and if one-third of this large area were fallowed, as it should be under dry farming methods the moisture conserved would be equivalent to ten Barren Jack schemes, coating approximately £30,000,000. Beyond the present profitable wheat zone, it is estimated there are another 10,000,000 acres, which will in all probability be added to this profitable zone within the near future, due to the effects of applied knowledge of both soil and plant. Mr Peacock urges that this aspect of water con servation has enormous possibilities, and demands more attention than it at present receives.