AUTUMN CEREALS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 April 1940, Page 9

AUTUMN CEREALS

CULTIVATION OF LAND.

The cultivation of the land preparatory to the autumn and early winter sowing of cereals should now be well under way. The autumn and early winter is an ideal time for sowing suitable varieties of oats and barley. Aut-umn-sown oats are commonly grown after wheat, or they may follow grass, rape, or a forage crop. Autumn-sown barley usually follows wheat or oats, or the summer fallow of a lea paddock. Sowing after peas produces too much straw in wet seasons, but is successful in drier districts. Sowing after rape is inadvisable owing to the risk of uneven growth. For cereals sown after grass a preparatory skim-ploughing and working up is necessary, given some time before the main cultivation in order to allow the turf to decay. After wheat a preliminary cultivation of the stubble is desir->-able. Folowing other crops the necessity for cultivation before deep ploughing depends on circumstances. After peas on a freeworking lonin, one deep ploughing may be all that is necessary —similarly after rape fed off under dry conditions. On heavy or clay soils, however, a preliminary cultivation is usually necessary.

A deep ploughing should then be given in March or April, followed by a working down with harrow, discs and cultivator. Too fine a tilth should not be prepared on the surface, for this is liable to cake during the winter. The cultivator is a necessary implement when the land is cloddy, as it brings the clods to the surface and shakes the fine soil to the bottom, thus making a good seedbed for the crop. Small clods on the surface are an advantage. During the winter these will crumble from the action of frost. Care should be exercised in the use of the roller; if it is used, the cultivator should be used afterwards to loosen the surface and prevent setting. Particularly for barley the land should be cleaned of weeds as thoroughly as possible. Any hollows in the fields should have surface drains made to carry off any standing water that may collect after rain. Oats for grain or chaff and the production of a certain amount of green feed are usually sown before the end of April, although in the drier districts they may be sown much earlier.