SOUTH AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 466, 22 April 1857, Page 7

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE.

(Qantinuedfrom our last.)

I could treat of other substances calculated to benefit the land as manures, but in our primitive position-—I mean the primitive method of farming that we are compelled to adopt, owing to the high price of labour —those I have treated upon are the best adapted to South Australia. The' price of labour, I hope, will never be lower until the prices of the necessaries of life are less ; as. a man that has to work in the broiling sun in this colony ought to be rewarded by a good wage. But if the price of labour was on a par with Old much could be said about other manures. The last,, thougb not the least, means of fertilization, is the pulverization of the soil, ploughing, fallowing, scarifying, clodcrushing, harrowing and the like. This should never be neglected by the farmer to run after manures, but he should do this well first, as the pulverization of the soil is the first object a good farmer would attend to. Make it fine, so as to be close; it will retain more moisture, and_ seeds will germinate and flourish much better in it; and where manure cannot be obtained, or the

expense would not be covered by the improvementiucrop.fallowyourland everythird orfourth year, and so give it a rest, and let the smrand rain penetrate it, and by so fallowing clean it of weeds. As regards crops, it would be useless of me to recommend only the crops that pay the farmer here—that is, wheat, barley, oats, hay, potatoes, as general crops —but there is oiie thing which I would suggest that the farmer should add, that is carrots'; the soil here is well adapt ted for their growth; in well worked land they may be drilled in with a Suffolk drill, after well mixing the seed with wood ashes. They would pay the farmer near Adelaide best, to sell to feed horses in the city. I calculate that a crop on the Adelaide plains would be twenty tons to the acre, and very careful cultivation would produce thirty tons. These, at 40s. or 50s. per ton, would pay the farmer, and command a sa.le to the horsekeeer, who would find that chopped carrots and bran, or carrots and oats mixed, would be a dainty dish to set before his stud, as well as a very economical one. The sorts best adapted for the purpose are the Altringham and the White Belgian; the time of sowing the beginning of May, and then there will not many run to seed.

I must now, in performing my duty, say something reprehensible of the system generally adopted by the farmer of burning stubble, Professors Johnson and Liebig agree that the best manure for any plant is its own decomposed self. If so, why burn stubble, when you intend to so wheat the next season on the same land ? According to analysis, the burning process consumes 950 parts of manure out of 1,000. In my opinion, the legislature would act wisely in passing an act to prevent the burning of stubble, or of impoverishing the land instead of fostering it. A farmer would be thought insane that fetched a load of manure from the city into his section, and then set fire to it. But I have seen the South Australian farmer carting manure from Adelaide into the very section that he has only a few days previously burnt many tons of straw. Oh, what false economy!

BEEAKING UP NEW LAND,

I think it will not be out of place to make a few observations from practical experience on this head, as I believe it is not foreign to the subject, and many inexperienced persons are daily committing errors in doing this. I have observed that if a crop is intended to be sown on it the first year it is broken up, it should be ploughed very shallow, say four inches deepj in narrow furrows, and the furrows made to lie on the edge as much as possible—not turned over right flat, as by so doing you get too much souiof unsweetened soil on the surface, and the wheat, or whatever you sow,- does'not do so well. | But if it can lie fallow for one -year to begin '' with, it will be very advantageous to plough deep, and cross plough it again before sowing the crop the crop the following season. On the the plains wheat should always be sown much earlier than in the hill districts.' Much is lost if you do not sow before the middle of May on the plains. I believe one of the most, if not the most important means of obtaining the greatest fertility of the soil is first to improve our race of farmers and make them better able (generally, I mean) to judge the value of different soils, arid their adaptation to certain crops ; and the best manures for the same, and crops for certain soils, This would be best attained by the establishment of an agricultural college, normal school or model farm attached to an agricultural training-school, where fanners may place their sons to be educated, and at the same time to "learn the rudi? ments of "scientific agriculture; and working a few hours per day on the farm, under a scientific superintendent, would be great recreation for them ; aud to learn a lesson from the rudiments of agriculture, chemistry, &c, would be far more useful to them than the " Lark and her Young Ones," and such other tales. And such institution may be made to come within the reach of most of the colonists, as the labour of the boys would in some way be reproductive for the interest "of the institution itself. This is a suggestion I have often thought to lay before' the South Australian Agricultural Society, but time (an important object with me) has hitherto prevented me ; but, as I believe it is so closely connected with the object sought for, I venture to give you a brief idea for the founding pf such an institution, and at, the same time would forward such a scheme to the utmost of my, ability. Agricultural expe-

riments are seldom conducted with sufficient precision to be of utility except under the direction of some careful observer, andthat generally is best done in a few feet of garden ground. The farmer is often occupied with too many things himself to mark the minute differences that effect the result; for instance, where lime has been found useful, and a-good crop obtained by the abundant use of it, land is limed, as often as can be done, with the same expectation of success. Thesame may be said of "marling." If one application has done good, another, it is supposed, wiU be equally beneficial. On thesame principle, quack doctors pretend that not only the diseased are cured by their medicines, but that they should be be continually taken by persons in health to prevent disease, but the ignorant only are the dupes of these professions.. Therefore it is necessary that the science of agriculture should be instilled into the young farmer in his scholarship, so that it may be matured as he grows up, and become serviceable when he is of age to enter on a farm for himself, and so make him then able to follow " cause and effect" in all his experiments

Utilitaeian.