Walae of Green Manure.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 201, 30 April 1887, Page 8

Walae of Green Manure.

1 In EnrdpeiUhe value of green crops, ploughed under fermfcmire, is now attracting specif attention. Vetches theie are a favouritecrop tdfoß&ploughed under. In this country,* says tire -American Fartster, North, rdttf clove* is< the great renovating crop ; ia thei, Soul'h th*><cow pea, not nsally a pea, but ay ibexua, is largely used. From foreign «exdhangesM\ps find that in Saxony and Sileßia, where: an almost purely sandy soil abounds, where (there is consequently but little fodder and eattile feeding will not pay, the wattt .of ordinary manure has led to tf*e practice of <employing instead such green crops «&s «love."-a»d vetches. So-eocn as the rye~a cotna&aa ci'€np»in Saxony — has flowered, yellow vetch eeod is -sown among it in the proportion oftitw.o ■arad adbalf bushels to the acm. Protected foyithoirye-stalks, the vetches soon spivait, bvit are -still too young at harvest time to be touched by the reaping machine. Imme4iatejy.«2.ftenvard they shoot ahead rapidly, «nd on^ht to be in full flower xb the bagin- j mmg of September. The field is then well rolled, -so as to thoroughly " lay" the phmt-s^-and the plough follows the atoller, plonglnag in the vetch crop. Every four <«r -five »y ears about 450 pounds to the ,aei-o «rf ho me of the common phospliatee aie «ppeadtcver the ground before the paeeage •of the .pb ugh. This treatment eiutfelee the .Saxon itarmer to get a good wheat avop out of hib k«:-d after several fine crops of i#e. The gtcat quantity of nitrogen in (the «i?<jeulenl q een plants work*, the -chief I p*i t .of fci:e miracle, while the deoouaposxtiou of !t»he fresh vegetable matter uaaderi grownd 4JiveB off carbonic acid, winch at'Acks 'the inert silicates and turns them into aeaueilablo salts. But besides thie the veteben, mzutil they have quite rotted away, hold moisture for the roots of the following grain .crop— a great point in sandy ground — aitd wher.-.-decompo-ition is complete they give a vegejtoble mould is in valuable as a boud°in a loose, eilicious soil. Pro&sseior Wille, of the Paris Natural History Museum, is making great efforts to introduce this -system in the vast tracts of similar poor. land in France. The expense ( is not great.; ;iu fact, the manure is relatively cboap (l »o>t costing as much as 15s an acre. ]