FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 September 1922, Page 12

FARM AND DAIRY.

THE SPRING CROPS. SECURING SUCCESS BENEFIT GF CULTIVATION. As spring’approaches drying winds are often experienced, when tiie farmer becomes anxious as to the welfare of his crops. If the land is well worked and the crops have been put in while the land was in good condition there will be less anxiety felt. Many farmers, in order to get the full accompaniment of crops in, are anxious when the usual time for sowing arrives, and while early sowing is to be preferred, when conditions are favourable, it is unwise to push along with the sowing when the soil is yet unfit to receive the seed. Yet, very often, the seed is sown while the land is in a wet. soddened condition, with the result that the seed is slow to germinate (if it germinates at all), and correspondingly slow of growth afterwards. Land that has been ploughed and worked in winter will contain a large amount of water. This : should be conserved as much as possible for the future crop, except, of course, on very wet. low-lying lands, where it may be advisable to cultivate deeply in order to allow the air to eiculate freely through the soil, and thereby sweeten it, and so make it more congenial to the growth of the crop when sown. Generally speaking, however, on light and medium soils, a-fter the rain of win--ter, in fact as soon as the ground is in

a fit state, it is obviously right to work the surface immediately. The object is to prevent evaporation of the moisture stored up during winter. SEASONABLE TILLAGE. Whether it is time to sow or not the tillage should begin at the earliest possable moment; a few weeks’ delay may mean she evaporation of a month’s rainfall. After this early tillage, the land may stand for a week or two, or more as the case may be. until the right time to sow. The main thing is to have the land worked early. It is better to be late with the sowing than to be late with the ploughing ami subsequent cultivation. When possible the ploughing should be done in autumn or early winter. Tn the first place, early ploughing loosens the

soil thereby increasing its water-absorb-ing and retaining power and diminishing loss by run-off ■ and under-drainage. It therefore follows that when ploughing is done early and where conditions permit of deep ploughing there will be a greater supply of water secured for the crop there would be if the ploughing is done late, or shallow, and that subsoiling will increase the supply still further. It is not, however, advisable to revert from shallow to very deep ploughing right away, for the simple reason that plant lood in the subsoil is often in an unprepared and unavailable form, and if too much of it is brought to the surface for the plant roots to get at only injury to the crop will result. This is especially so if the land is ploughed deeply in late spring and the crop sown almost imimdiately after, '.’he newly-turned-up subsoil will not hqve become sweetened be the time the seeds have germinated and the seeds in this subsoil will have a detrimental effect upon the roots of the young plants. This is one of the reasons why a crop sametimes looks yellow and tardy of growth when it first comes up and is often put down ro want of plant food in the soil, whereas there may be plenty of plant food present but it is in an unfit state for the plants to make use of it. With this in view, if it is desirable that the ploughing should be deeper, it is better to increase the depth gradually, say one or two inches each ploughing, until tne desired depth of furrow is obtained, than to bring up too much raw material all at once. CONDITIONS FOR SEED-SOWING. When sowing the seed it is essential that the soil should be in good order.

The seed should not be sown while the land is in a wet, soddened state, or it will have the opposite effect to that desired, in which case the seed will either lie dormant for a long period or it ,will have the opposite effect from that dealthough the crop may not be a total failure, the plants will receive such a severe check that the yield will be seriously affected. The kernel of wheat, as with other -seeds of a similar nature, such as rye. oats, or barley, encloses a lining plant in the dormant stage. The germ is the living plant of the kernel from which the shoots and- roots develop. W hen the kernel or seed is placed in the soil under proper conditions of moisture and temperature, together with the free access of air it absorbs moisture and begins to grow. The food for the young plantlet is furnished by the endosperm. If, however, there should be insufficient or excessive moisture, or the temperature is too low this germ will fail to produce a shoot: when tins is the case the grain dies. It can be clearly seen by this that the requisite conditions for germination to take place are, first, moisture (not excessive) ; second, atmospheric o?:ygen ; and thirdly, a suitable temperature. By these means various chemical changes occur in the starch and fat whereby the embryo is nourished and grows. The chief ingredients in the ashes of seeds are potash and phospheric acid.—Auckland Herald.

DAIRYING AT ROTORUA. THE VALUE OF PUMICE LAND. The impression that the words, “light soil,” give on the uninstructed, that light soil yields light crops, needs correcting, says the Rotorua correspondent of the Auckland Herald. Practical farmers who have spent years in other recognised dairying districts, emphatically . siare after working the Rotorua pumice lands that the production achieved exceeds their expectation. The great development of Rotorua township is not based upon the possibilities of increased- tourist traffic, or yet upon the boom foundation. ■ It is the sure perception of a very sane class. The forests are coming to profit ver” surely and very shortly. The land s not overweighted with crushing capital values, and it is immune from floods and drought.’ The climate is keen and bracing in winter, devoid of fogs; in summer mild and equable. The impulse of the spring is already being felt and dairying is now earlier and later than it was. The country lends itself to provision for winter stock. Clover can be cropped with profit for hay twice and yet leave a big margin for occupation by stock. Root crops there are proverbial. Owing to the nature of the soil turnips, mangolds and carrots take in almost unworked country, and are unequalled in any other district. Steadily the town spreads to meet the country, and farms surround three sides of the town area. The picturesque native bush has succumbed to the axe, and farms lie to the skyline round the great lake basin. As a town, Rotorua has found itself, as a farming district Rotorua has made good; there is no question as to its future status among the producers of the Dominion. and the charge of being a parasitical paradise for tourists and useless otherwise to the State must he regarded as ancient fiction too untruthful even for remembrance. DEPRESSION IN BEEF. FAR-REACHING EFFECTS. The depression in the world’s beef markets is creating conditions in New Zealand that will have a far-reaching effect on the farming industry. Already many farmers have turned from cattleraising to other branches of production. Many have taken to dairying; others’ are directing their efforts to raising mutton and lamb, the export trade prices for that class of meat being favourable to producers.- Another effect of the altered conditions was mentioned recently by an expert, who stated that practically all the steer calves produced in the Waikato, were being This was reflected in the hide market, which was being glutted with calf skins, with the result that prices for the skins were dropping. Sheep-farmers in the Morrinsville district have sustained severe losses during the last week or -two owing to ewes dying through lambing. Experienced farmers are at .a logs to know the cause of the trouble, and the experience is the worst they have had. One farmer has already lost 22 ewes out of 300 that have lambed. The disease is fairly general. One farmer states that he has noticed that sheep on the hill country are less troubled with disease than those on easy country. He expressed the opinion that the - only way <>f dealing with the trouble was to.shift the sheep every day. He advances the theory that the trouble has arisen through the flush of feed during the summer anrt autumn and winter months, causing the ewes to be in too good a condition at the time of lambing. It has been noticed that since the recent rain there has ‘been a diminution in the number of ewes attacked with the disease.