FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 12 September 1907, Page 4

FARM AND DAIRY.

LASTIXG EFFECT OF BARNYARD MANURE. Barnyard manure is one of the most efficient means at the disposal of the farmer to permanently improve his soil. Probably no other fertiliser possesses, to so great a degree, the power of restoring worn soils to productiveness and giving them lasting fertility. It accomplishes this result, however, not so much by the actual fertilising constituents which it supplies as by improving the physical properties of the soil, increasing Ihe amount of humus, which is generally deficient in worn soils, improving its texture, and increasing its water-ab-sorbing and water-holding power. Experiments have shown that the influence of manure may be perceptible 20 years after application. Observations at Rothamsted, England, during thirty years on barley unmanured, manured continuously, and manured during the first twenty years, only showed that "there was gradual exhaustion and redaction of produce without manure, and gradual accumulation and increase of produce with th 3 annual application of farmyard manure. But when the application was stopped, although the effect of the residue from the previous applications was very marked, it somewhat rapidly diminished, notwithstanding that calculation showed an enormous accumulation of nitrogen as well as other constituents."

The yield, however, was maintained for 20 years considerably higher than that on the unmanured soil. Continuous manuring of wheat at the rate of fourteen tons per acre annually for forty years resulted in an average increase of yield from year to year of one-fourth bushel per acre, or a total of about ten bushels in forty years. While it is true that there is a constant increase in the productiveness of soil on which barnyard manure is applied regularly, it is not as great as the amounts applied would seem to justify. This is clearly due to the fact, already explained, that the nitrogen accumulates in the soil in slowly available forms. A NEW WHEAT. The Agricultural Department of the University of Cambridge has succeeded in producing a fixed type of wheat which will combine the strength of Canadian and other foreign wheats with the free-growing qualities of the English varieties. Professor Wood, head of the department, explained the process to the Association of Directors and Secretaries of Education at the University farm at Impington. The British laborer, it appears, though he has the producing of home-grown cereals, is at one with the town artisan in that he will no longer purchase bread made from the flour of English wheat, which has neither the color nor the quality of the product of foreign or mixed flour. The wheat the department has produced at Impington was sent to a miller to grind and report upon without any clue as to its dentty. He reported his belief that he was dealing with some of the finest quality of Canadian wheat. A baker similarly reported as to the floor. Professor Wood is confident that he has found what the British agriculturist requires, and is growing it in bulk for seed com, but it will be several years before it can be put on the market in any quantities. Considerable progress has also been made in experiments to combat with well-known diseases among British-grown crops, roots as well as cereals. The experiments have been in hand about six years.

Messrs Wilier and Riley have again secured the Cardiff output on open consignment. The Lowgarth output has gone to Messrs A. S. Patterson and Co. on con- , signment with a certain guaranteed ( fjo.b. price. , The Warea factory has sold its out- , put (writes our correspondent) to Messrs Nathan and Co., of Wellington, , for lOVid per lb f.o.b. At the annual meeting of the Waitara Dairy Company held on Monday, Messrs. F. Hoskin and A. Rowc were reappointed to the directorate, and Mr. H. Smith was elected to fill the vacancy caused by the retirement of Mr. A. Neilson, who has given up dairying. Mr. W. E. Percival was reappointed auditor. A vote of thanks to the directors and staff was carried. The honorarium to the chairman and fees to the directors were fixed the same as last season. The directors were instructed to endeavour to confer with directors of other companies in the district to go into the matter of amalgamation with the object of establishing a central factory and turning the pr«ent factories into creameries, the object being to lessen the cost of production and place the whole output under one brand. Mr. Old was reappointed chairman. Mr. J. G. Harkness, secretary of the National Dairy Association, has returned to Wellington from a visit to the Taranaki district. He states that the pros- . pects as to prices for the season are very good. There is plenty of grass, stock is in good condition, and farmers are in" good heart. "We cannot," he told ' a Post reporter, "expect the high prices Which ruled la3t year, because they were practically phenomenal, but there is every prospect that the prices this season will be satisfactory." Mr. Harkness went on to say that some of the dairy companies in Taranaki are going in for cheese production in preference to butter-making, and others, which also have dual plants, may follow their example. The last contract which the National Dairy Association made with the shipping companies for the carriage of dairy produce to the Home markets has still three years to run. Under it butter is carried at- 2s 6d per bobx, and cheese at Vid per lb, which covers coastal freights from all graded stations. Mr. Harkness maintained that in some respects the New Zealand contract was a better one for the dairy companies than the contract recently made by the Australians.