AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL.

Southland Times, Issue 1194, 16 July 1869, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL.

NUTRIMENT CONTAINED IN GRASSES. A correspondent of the Farmer's Club of the American Institute aslcs the following question : — " Are the nutritive qualities of grass materially affected by different degrees of fertility of the soil that produces the grass? Or, to give the question a little different form, suppose two fields, the soil of each, by nature as similar as may be, but one of them by manuring: and culture rendered so fertile as to produce from two to there tons of hay per acre ; the other, by neglect, so sterile as to produce only from half a ton to one ton of hay per acre (the kinds of grasses in each field the same, say half clover and half Timothy), which would be most valuable, a ton of hay grown on the fertile or the sterile fieid r The club concluded that the question was one of too much importance to be decided hastily, and in this we entirely agree with them, It is a subject, however, which has occurred a good deal of our thoughts, and the conclusion 1 at which we have arrived is, that the better the land the better the quality of the grass, or at least of the hay. It is probable that very succulent grass contains more water in proportion to the nutritive matter present than grass which has been grown on drier and poorer soil, although this is by no means certain ; for, while succulent grass contains more waste matter in the form of water, grass of a different quality contains more waste in the forta of indigestible woody fibre ; but when made into hay the superabundant water would disappear, while the indigestible portions of the grass would only be rendered iriore insoluble. Analogy leads to the same conclusion. Hard, stringy turnips, grown on poor i land, do not contain as much nutriment as turnips of a better quality, and this is well known to every person who has fed on turnips. Sheep will gain largely on the one, while they will fall off on an equal weight of the other. But aside from the absolute amount of nutriment contained in each, as shown by the balance of the chemist, there is another point to be considered. Succulent, well- grown vegetables do not produce that derangement of the digestive organs which is the result of eating vegetables of a contrary kind. Any person that has compared the subsepuent effects of well-grown and illgrown radishes, will be able tc appreciate this. And we must remember that in food, as well as in soils, the ultimate analysis of the chemist is not the only circumstance to be taken into account. One soil may contain double the amount of phosphates that is contained in another, and yet a plant might find an insufficient supply in the first, while from the second it could extract all that it required. It is a question whether tough beef contains absolutely less nutritive elements than beef of a different character. That it is less nutritive does not, however, admit of question, and it is probable that this arises quite as largely from its physical and physiological character as from the absolute percentage of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen contained in it. But aside from the purely organic part of the grass or hay, it is well known that plants vary in the quantity of mineral matter which they contain. Of two tons of grass grown on different soils, it has been found that one contained several times the amount of bone-making material that was present in the other. Thus Voelecker found that clover grown on land which had become clover sick, and which therefore yielded a poor crop, was greatly deficient in potash. Mangold wurzel has been found to vary in the same way, and Herapath found that the favorite food of the Scotch contained twice as much phosphoric acid when grown on good soil that it did when produced on light sandy soil. Hence it is quite possible that an animal may eat a due weight of grass or hay, and yet not get enough phosphate of lime for its milk or its bones, simply because the percentage of phosphate is so small as to be insufficient. " Manure and culture " — both these may have an influence upon the constituents of the plant, and the latter quite as much as the former. For as we just remarked, it ia not sufficient that the necessary ingredients are merely present ; they must be in an available condition. Now there are many soils which contain abundant plant food, and yet upon which plants fail succeed. Culture, deep, and above all thorough culture, will remedy this, and without it manure alone will not be sufficient. Belying upon theory alone, we might suppose that an abundant supply of plant food in the shape of manure would enable us to secure crops of the highest degree of excellence, both as regards quantity and quality. Such, however, is not the case. The soil requires also that thorough culture which tends so powerfully to develop and render available its own latent stores. This requiras time, and hence we can rarely attain the highest results at once, no matter how liberal may be our application of manure. In soil which has not been properly prepared by deep and thorough culture, the plant itself fails to reach that condition iv which it is enabled to make full use of the abundant stores of food presented to it. Its roots, for example, may not be sufficiently developed, and hence the large quantity of food existing in its vicinity is simply wasted so far as it is concerned , for here, as in the moral world, the law holds good — " Unto him that hath Bhall be given, while from him that hath not shall be taken away even that he hath." So, too, in other obvious ways, want of culture tends to diminish the food-absorb-ing power of the plant. This is not theory or speculation. Witness the effects of culture alone in the Tullian and Loia-Weedon systems of growing wheat.

In his thoroughly practical work, " Gardening for profit," Henderson gives his experience on that point : — " It rarely in--1 deed happens that any amount of labor or manuring can so prepare the ground the first season as to bring it to that high degree of tilth necessary for growing garden vegetables as they should be grown, and any attempt to do so *vill result in a meagx-e crop, which will not pay — at least in such districts as New York where there is always abundance of products of first quality." The low grade as regards quantity aud quality is here due to the inferior physical condition of the soil — a condition which is to be ameliorated by liberal applications of manure combined with such thorough mechanical culture as will enable the fine roots aud fibres to penetrate every part ; while, at the same time, the soil itself is thus brought into extensive contact with those atmospheric and manurial agencies which are known to exert such a powerful and beneficial influence upon it. — Arator, in ' Albany Country G-entie-man.'

Farmer's Creed. — We believe in small farms and thorough cultivation. We believe the soil loves to eat as well as the owner, and ought, therefore, to be well manured. We believe in going to the bottom of things, and, therefore, in deep ploughing and enough of it. All the better if it be a subsoil plough. We believe in large crops, which leave land better than they found it — making both the farm and farmier rich at once. We believe th it every farm should own a good farmer. We believe than the best fertilizer of any soil is a spirit of industry, enterprise, and intelligence — Without this, lime, gypsum, and guano will be of little use. We believe in good farms, good barns, and good farm horses, good orchards, and children enough to gather the fruit. We believe in a clean kitchen, a neat wife in it, a clean cupboard, a clean dairy, and a clean conscience: — 'Dixie Farmer/