THE GARDEN.

Te Aroha News, 15 February 1890, Page 3

THE GARDEN.

(By Hortus.)

Soil in a Good State for Cultivating To be able to keep the soil in a good stat® of cultivation is the first question that al cultivators must study. How often do we hear that the produce of a piece of ground will scarcely pay for the gathering of the crop, clearly pointing to the fact that either the ground is too poor, or that it has been exhausted by previous crops. Where systematic cropping is attempted, sufficient fertilising materials must be placed in the ground with each crop, so. as to keep it in a state of fertility. Cultivators maintain this state of fertility by artificial means, for which purpose we add to the soil fertilising materials in the shape of vegetable, animal, or mineral matters. The first of these, by decaying,, leaves a deposit of plant food, vvhich, if supplied in sufficient quantities, will not only keep the soil in good heart vear after year, but will also add to its fertility. Mineral manures are also very valuable for many kinds of crops. They not only supply direct to some crops such particles as they may require, but at the same time-their chemical action on the soil dissolves quantities of plant food stored therein. In using manure it is best always toiplace it in such a manner that it will just be covered up with the soil, for the sun’s rays and atmosphere will absorb and carry away a portion of its strength if it be left exposed on the surface. When using litter manure, especially in the autumn, it is better to dig it. into the ground in a fresh state, for by doing so the soil will get the benefit of all the ammonia contained therein. If dug in just as the summer crops come off the ground it will soon rot and supply good, food for a green crop during the winter, and when the next summer crops are put in the debris will act on them at once. Where manure is required for flower borders it should now be placed in a heap as it comes to hand, so that it may get well rotted by the time the borders get their annual digging over at the end of the season. When manures such as guano or other manures that are easily dissolved in moisture are used, they should only be applied when the crop is able to take them, because if left long in the soil all the manurial ingredients are washed out. They are best also applied in moist weather. Culivators, when using manure, should also try and study the nature of the soil that is to be manured, and, where oossible, use such manure as will suit the soil. For instance, where the soil is of a light, dry nature, try and obtain cow manure, as it is of a retentive nature, and will keep moisture longer in light dry soils. Again, where the soil is of a heavy, stiff, and retentive character, stable manure is the best, as it is light and easily becomes friable, and will assist in breaking up the particles of stiff soil. The question of manure being so important, all cultivators should try and make it a study. It will greatly assist them if they will only try and observe how in nature soils are manured. Nature practices manuring on an extensive scale. In the forests, fern, and other scrub lands still in a natural condition, we find the earth is covered with a deposit of leaves, branches, and half-decomposed wood, and bark of old trees, along with the debris of thousands of ferns, under scrub, etc. In the virgin bush, fern, or scrub land, the work of Nature in the way of manuring can be seen going on daily, or almost hourly, some decayed portion will be falling from the trees, scrub, etc., where it becomes a portion of thatvastbodyofmaterials in all stages of decay, which in time will supply more food for the trees or plants growing on the ground. This natural covering of manure is being constantly renewed, and instead cf the trees or scrub in time exhausting the soil, they are constantly enriching it. Consequently wherever there have been large natural forests, heavy scrub or swamp lands, which have been established for centuries, it is almost always safe to trust to the fertility of such soils. The heavier and denser the natural growth, the greater will have been the annual debris, leaving heavier deposits of decayed vegetable matter every year, and causing those soils to become very rich in time. Now, when the husbandman takes the place of Nature we find a total destruction of this natural growth ; consequently the same destruction of the natural means of manuring. Of course such has to be destroyed so that he may leave the soil free for the growth of the plants he may wish to cultivate. This artificial cultivation is as a rule undertaken so that all the i production of the ground may be taken away in time, all the plant food which may have been stored up will get exhausted, and when this occurs, plant food musb again be re-introduced into the soil, so that cultivation may go on with gratifying results.