Notes.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 7, 26 January 1915, Page 1

Notes.

Animals give out carbonic acid when they breathe, and plants form the greater part of their substance from this gas, which they assimilate from the air. It has been calculated that an acre of forest wil! annually absorb as much carbonic acid as is produced in the couwe of a year by twelve men. It is a wonderful provision of Nature that the requirements of plants and animals supplement and complete each other. Before the introduction of commercial potash salts from the potash mines in Germany, the value of wood ashes was so well known as a source of potash that there was a regular demand for them—and during . the coming season they should be collected and spread on the land. Good wood ashes, that have been exposed to rain, contain from b to 6 per cent of potash and a little phosphate of lime. Exposure to the weather, if rain should have fallen, may be considered to reduce the value of the ashes by one halt. There is little to be- expected from the Vancouver market by New Zealand butter shippers this season. According to local advice from West Canadian markets the local product is being turned out in quantities which nearly equals the demand. The supplies being brought from Eastern Canadian markets are much less than in past seasons. Wet soil cannot be made prodtr tive without drainage. Sour toils will not grow clover or any of the legumes without sweetening, so that liming is often essential as a

preliminary to scil improvement. The next ttep after draining and liming, if these operations are necessary, is to till the soil with humus or decaying vegetable matter. This vegetable matter is by far the most importatt factor in building up poor soils, for we musl have it to raise large crops of any kinr*. A practical I'alifoinian dairy farmer writes of alfalfa in tbe following terms:—"We speak of our experience, which has been considerable, and tie experience of every dairyman in tbe northern half of the State, when we say that alfalfa (lucerre) 13 the best butter and cheese making plant we have ever fed cows upon, either in the summer or winter, either as grazing or hay. Indeed, it is the general testimony of dairymen who pasture cows on the native grass and on alfalfa that when pasluring on alfalfa the milk and butter are at least 20 per cent greater and much richer and finsr than when pasturing on native gras c es."