HARNESSING THE MICROBES

Wairarapa Age, 24 March 1920, Page 7

HARNESSING THE MICROBES

According to the Daily Mail, a com- j pletely new virtue has been cLscov- 1 oreel in autumn weather. The mi-j erobes of the so:l —notably-those which make it fertile—are apt to "ca' canny" anil go slow in the winter season, and are found to be much more active in autumn than at any time of the year. The d-scovery iof this little fact means, according to one expert, a large permanent increase to the fert.lity of English acres. The reason for his belief is this—Now that the tractor is in general use, -fields are ploughed as soon as they are. cut. On one farm where the employment and production figures of the microbes were carefully studied, the tractors got to work on the fields in the very 1 trail of the cutters, and the fields were all ploughed within a day or two of the carrying of the grain. A specialist gave five reasons for the advan- \ tages resulting from this—(l) Plough- 1 ing is easier, because the ground is | soft under the standing corn; (2) a I seed bed is prepared early, so that, sowing can follow at any desired moment ; (3) the microbes are now much I more active in reducing the stale old roots into manure than they arc at any other season; (-1) the earlier wheat is sown the better it yields; (5) weed seeds are encouraged to sprout at once, and so can be completely killed now instead of lying tfll spring and growing up among the crop. A permanent addition to the fertility of acres enjoying says, "that of late years in our prinance between the tractor (which can *do the work of five ploughs and five teams) and the kindly microbe.