FARMING PROBLEMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 January 1939, Page 3

FARMING PROBLEMS

RESTORING LOST FERTILITY.

DECREASE OF HUMUS. One of the great farming problems of the world is the decrease of humus in the soil and a consequent loss of fertility. Not much research into the question has so far been undertaken in New Zealand, but it is a job which will have to be done. In the Journal of the British Ministry of Agriculture, Sir Albert Howard, honorary secretary of the British Science Guild, discusses some of the causes of this “vanished fertility” more particularly as it affects Britain. Sir Albert refers to the changes which have taken place in agriculture in England, which have involved the destruction of the “old well-tried balance between crops and stock,” and have resulted in a general shortage of humus in the soil and a decrease in soil fertility. One of the great problems of British agriculture, he writes, is how best to restore and maintain this vanished fertility at reasonable cos.t and so put fields into better heart. A possible solution of the problem is to make on every farm, by a simple process, the necessary humus from agricultural and urban residues now largely wasted.

USE OF “INDORE PROCESS.”

. The author describes the original Indore process. He describes its adoption by the plantation industries; and finally he discusses its adaptation to British conditions. It is not without interest that there appears to be evidence of a relationship between increased soil fertility, following the application of freshly-prepared humus (made from vegetable and animal wastes) and resistance to disease. An example is given from tea-planting, where the addition of humus at the rate of five tons pei- acre has caused a sudden and wellmarked improvement in the general health of the bushes, associated apparently with an effect of the humus on the absorbing root system, causing formation of. numerous tufts of healthy roots with well-established symbiotic relationships.

INDEPENDENT OF “CHEMICALS.” Sir Albert describes trials made of the Indore process in Great Britain. Here again, after some years’ experience of the process on nurseries in Lincolnshire, it is reported that one effect has been that land under intensive cultivation has reached a state of independence, “and for the last two years no chemicals have been used in the gardens at all, either as fertilisers or as sprays for disease and pest control. The only wash which has been used on the fruit trees is one application each winter of lime sulphur, and it is hoped to eliminate this before long.” Sir Albert stresses the essential importance of the use of the excreta of cattle for providing the food materials of the Organisms which manufacture humus.

The use of these animal wastes, particularly urine, is insisted upon because humus thus made is superior to that manufactured by means of chemical activators, and no permanent and effective system of agriculture has ever been devised without live-stock. It is impossible to imagine a soil “in good heart” following the use of chemical fertilisers alone, and any economic method of increasing the humus content of our soils demands the fullest consideration.