Page 6 Advertisements Column 1

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 296, 11 July 1929, Page 6

THE TAUPO TGTARA TIMBER CO., LTD. Sawmillers & Timber Merchants - PUTAKURU Large stocks of mountain-grown timber—TOTAßA, MATAI, RlMlJ—always on hand. JOB TIMBER, suitable for farm outbuildings, special cheap rates. FATiM GATES, strong and durable, made from selected timber. Prices for All Requirements on Application to THE TAUPO TOTARA TIMBER CO., LTD. ’Phone No. 2- PUTARURU - P.O. Box No. 3

THE T 3 UE VALUE OF ' A FERTILISES PROVIDING AGAINST DRY SPELLS. | TO INCREASE PRODUCTION. Although it is now mil-winter an' vainfall is even too abundant, consider ation must now be given to the provision of ample pasturage for mid-sum mer, when short, sharp periods of dry •weather are not infrequent. In this connection it is to be remembered that plants live by drawing from the soil the water containing mineral matter in very dilute solution. This water passes up through the plant to the leaves where some of the water and the mineral .matter is used in the manufacture of stareh, sugar and proteins—the foods used by stock. The surplus water not required for these purposes passes out of the leaves into the atmosphere. Thiv loss of surplus moisture by the plant L termed transpiration. Cn a fine day a crop of cabbages will transpire as much as two tons of water per acre. Like wise a pasture in mid-summer transpires into the atmosphere very large amounts of water daily. EXPERIMENTS WITH WHEAT. Investigators found that the crops •varied in the amount of water transpired compared with Lhe amount of dry foodstuff matter manufactured. Thifc has been termed the transpiration ratio. In the early ’9o’s m SjuUi Australia experiments were Trade with wheat u ascertain the effect of superphosphate on the transpiration rntxo. it was found that whereas without superphoo ; phate, wheat required about 1400 imrts of water to make 1 part foodstuff; with superphosphate at t..e late of 501 b. per acre the plants required only about 800 parts of water. Tnus, with a small amount of superphosphate, whent was enabled to produce nearly twice as much food as without superphosphate for the same amount of soil water. . , BUTTERFAT-PRODUCING ;j PASTURES. The same principle holds good with pastures. Those pastures receiving a dressing of superphosphate \will require less water for each pound of dry lood matter manufactured by the plants. This csin be expressed in another way "by saying that the useof superphosphate as a top-dressing for pastures will result in a greater yield of dry food matter during periods of drought. That this is so was amply demonstrated two Seasons ago, when through the somewhat prolonged period of dry weather those pastures top-dressed with superphosphate continued to yield herbage which showed a remarkable capacity for the production of butter-fat.