MANURE SUBSTITUTES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 September 1938, Page 4

MANURE SUBSTITUTES

DRY WEATHER SECRET. One of the secrets of dry-weather gardening is to ensure plenty of organic matter in the ground. Humus is allimportant, and if first-rate plants are to be grown the application of organic manures during a dry season is necessary. . Plants growing in soil with sufficient humus are usually healthy, and are not attacked by pests and diseases as readily as those in soil deficient in organic matter. Once organics have been applied, then artificial fertilisers can be used to stimulate the crops and supply deficiences. Farmyard manure is difficult to obtain, it is true; but efficient substitutes such as spent hops, finely divided wool shoddy, and fish manure are available. Green manuring is an excellent method of adding humus to the soil. This consists in growing plants for the purpose of digging in before they mature. Most green manures, like rye and mustard, give back to the soil the food absorbed during growth; but when members of the legume family are used —i.e., clover, peas, vetches, lupines, and so on—a good deal of nitrogen is collected from the air and added to the soil. It is a good plan for the gardener to sow all the seeds he has over (after spring sowings) on any patch of ground that is free at this time of the year to obtain plants to use as green manure. Sometimes green manure is slow, in decomposing, and calcium cyanamide may be used to accelerate rotting and to add nitrogen and lime. Whatever plants are grown, they should be cut down just before they flower, and then cut in pieces with a spade. The calcium cyanamide should then be applied at the rate of one ounce to the square yard. The material should be left for eight days, then dug in. If possible, another green manure should be sown over the same piece of ground, to be dug in its turn during winter. The advantage of this method of green manuring is that it not only enriches the ground with organic matter, but it cleans it also. Those who have no land to spare for green manuring should save all the vegetable matter they have and pile it in suitable heaps or pits, to be dug in during winter. To help this material to rot down quickly, and to prevent any objectionable odour arising from it, calcium cyanamide of Adca should be use.