THE NEW FARM.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 175, 15 June 1871, Page 7

THE NEW FARM.

Well, the proof has come ! The excellence of the pudding is found in the eating. Although, some weeks b;ick I was apprehensive that I had erred in diverging from the regular local practice of feeding down the young clover in autumn and spring, with a ' view to consolidating, as it is thought, [ the soil through the treading of the j stock, I am rejoiced to ascertain, now I that the harvest has arrived, that no one in the neighbourhood has anything like such " seeds" to mow. The gang, strong men as they were, fairly groaned under the weight of work : the g'iffer declared that they should not get their 2s. per day. Years ago, when I first took a fancy to farming, among the books t perused was " Nesbit on Agricultural Chemistry," an excellent little volume of the sort. I most then have been struck with the sentence, " Every leaflet upwards has a rootlet downwards ; and if the leaflet be taken off, the rootlet will not grow," for the fact has stuck as a burr to my memory ever since. Mr. Nesbit writes : — " Now what does the clover do? Every little leaflet which it shoots up into the air sends a rootlet downwards, so that in proportion to the upward growth of the clover is the downward growth of the x*oot; and when you have taken the clover away, you retain, in the shape of roots, several tons per acre of valuable vegetable matter which, by its slow decomposition, affords nutriment for the narrow-leafed wheat; so that by employing in the first instance turnips for the barley, and clover for the wheat, you accumulate in the soil a large quantity of material absorbed from the air, for the benefit of the after crop. This may be clearly seen if you consider tl>e difference between cutting clover and feeding it off. It is generally believed that a man who feeds his clover off will get a better crop than one who takes the hay. Ff you cut clover at midsummer, and let it grow again, and then take another cutting in the autumn, yon will afterwards obtain a far better crop of wheat. Every leaflet upwards has a rootlet downwards, and if the leaflet be taken off the rootlet will not grow, so that if the sheep be fed upon the surface the under-production is diminished. In exact proportion to the increase of the upper is the increase of the lower ; and if ytiu-are always feeding off the former with the sheep, you will have but few rootlets below." An experiment was tried by a friend in Northamptonshire. " A field of clover was divided into two parts. The whole was cut at midsummer ; half was left to grow again, and the other fed off. In October two pieces were staked out as regularly as possible : all the roots were dug up, carefully cleaned and weighed. The result was that, where, the clover had been cut once there were 25-cwt. of roots per acre, and where it had been cut twice there were 75cwt. per acre, being a difference of two tons of roots an acre," which containing so much nitrogen as these do, constituted an exceedingly good dressing for the wheat crop to follow. The whole of this volume is full of the most valuable information for the sucking agriculturist. — " Mark Lane Expres."

The following new method of getting rid of stumps is given by the •* Mount Alexander Mail:" — " Some one in the Bullarook forest who was clearing his land of stuuips, finding it expensive and tedious work, thought he would try an experiment.. He bored holes with an auger in several stumps, and filled them with kerosene, which after a few days disappeared. He then, set fire to the Btumps, and they burned entirely up

roots and all. Tbe kerosene, singular enough, penetrated every portion of the stump, and could be detected in the largest stumps by merely chipping with, an axe. The plan is being tried now on an extensive scale, and it is the cheapest and most expeditious method of clearing land that has been heavily timbered.