THE AGRICULTURAL CREED.

Patea Mail, 4 August 1881, Page 4

THE AGRICULTURAL CREED.

The following “ agricultural creed ” is given in the Richmond Planter and Farmer’. —l. Do not cultivate poor land. It is a feeble mother which can give no sustenance. 2, If your land is poor, you must limit the area of cultivation to your ability to manure—let it be ever so little—and you will be the gainer by it. 8. Exert yourself to produce manure on the farm. Such manure is the flour that makes the loaf, and a commercial fertiliser is only a leaven to it. Home made manures cost some labor but little money, while commercial fertilisers will bring yon in debt and are a kind of food which mother earth cannot entirely rely and fatten upon. We are not their enemy, but active friend, when judiciously used, and can be had without too great a strain on the farmer’s credit. 4. Bring to the aid of your manure pile green fallow crops, and try to clothe the bosom of mother earth with the green verdure of grass, from which live stock can be fed. 5. Keep as much stock as can be fed well ; for this adds to the manure pile and their increase, and a few fat carcases afford a big interest on the investment. 6, Diversify crops as much as possible, and do not rely on one staple. This will make your manure and labor pay a profit in some places when they fail in others. 7. Manure ! manure ! manure 1 and as before suggested, rely on the farm principally to produce it. It will “ put money in your pocket.” 8. “No grass, no stock ; no stock, no manure. No manure, no improvement of the land.”