FARMERS’ COLUMN.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 287, 25 July 1908, Page 6

FARMERS’ COLUMN.

If o’ood work is expected from the tools on the farm they must be kept in good condition. This is old and threadbare advice, but may help by constant recalling.

A Hamilton East resident is the possessor of a wonderful fieak of nature in-the shape of a draught horse with a cow’s foot, lie animal which is now seven months old, is by Salisbury Yet—Black Bess and was bred by Mr D Tribe, of Eureka. -The near fore foot is cloven just like that of a cow, . but in every other respect the animal is perfet.

Eor this time of the year, says a Te Kapua correspondent of the Taihape “ Times,” this part of the district is looking very well, feed is fairly plentiful, and stock are looking well. Bush-felling is o-oing on everywhere, which all the farmers are finding much more costly than a few years ago, costing now from 35s to 40s per acre. Ihe same class of bush a few years ago was felled at 25s per acre. Line fencing, which used to cost about 12s 6d, now costs 15s to 20s per chain.

The British strawberry crop is this season a phenomenal one, and estimated to be worth £1,000,000. A few years ago strawberries . m London were regarded as luxuries, but nowadays in good seasons the fruit is to be bought at 2d and bcl a pound, and the Kent growers were complaining a couple of seasons ago that the price which their strawberries brought . m Co vent Garden was not sufficient to pay the cost of picking and rail transit.

Good business is being done in grass-seed for forward deliteij, and during the week several fairly large orders have been booked for delivery next, month (says the “ Lyttelton limes ). One or two large lines of Giant Italian ryegrass have been booked for the North Island at a price equal to 5s f.0.b., and doublemachined dressed cowgrass < has been placed at 12s per cwt. Some lines of Canterbury grown white clover have changed hands at 95s per hundredweight f.o.b.

The following cable message has regarding the .London wool market has been received by Murray, Roberts and Co. —Market stronger. Compared with the closing rates of last sales, superior greusy merino and fine crossbred show no materiel change. Scoured merino aud inferior to medium greasy merino have advanced 5 to 7J- per cent., inferior descriptions showing the greatest advance. Coarse to medium crossbred has advanced 5 to 7k per cent., and coarse to medium crossbred suitable for America has advanced 10 to 15 per cent.

A most, ingenious method of growing early stiawberries has been lately devise by a specialist, and there may be a small fortune for the market gardeners who first practice it. The strawberries are planted in the open in lines, running east and west. On either side of each line a low wall, consisting of a single plank, is fixed, lower than the other. Over the top loose glass is laid when forcing time conies, and on warm soils the fruit can be ripened many days ahead of the season. This cheap and most effective method of forcing has still to be tried by the professional growers in England, but its value is beyond question, and every market gardener should make the experiment.

Mr J. M. Johnston, of Manawatu, who has returned from Queensland •.thus voices his opinion of the vaunted Commonwealth lands : — Properties can be obtained in Queensland up to about 40,000 acres, estimated to carry about 10,000 sheep, at a rental of something like 2d per acre on a leasehold tenure of 21 years ; and the Government is also offering inducements to people to take up smaller areas for dairy-farming and agriculturabpurposes. But there are many drawbacks as well as advantages to the prospective settler. He may have to contend against draught, the “Bathurst burr’” rabbits, the “Darling pea,” ‘spear-grass,” “grass seed,” to

say nothing of mosquitoes, flies and grasshoppers. If a man is prepared to take all these risks he may do well; but in my opinion he has a much safer investment in this little country of ours.

VALUE OF HUMUS.

When organic matter, either animal or vegetable-decays in the soil with a free supply of air it produces a black porous substance known as humus, says Dr J. T. Willard, of Kansas. There are all degrees of decomposition between the fresh plants and the humus. In certain stages the 'material is brown instead of black, and is then much less active as a source of soil fertility. The importance of humus in the soil can scarcely be over-estimated. It acts both physically and chemically, and it improves the condition of both sandy and clayey soils. With the former it fills the interstices between the sand grains, thus increasing the water-holding power, while it makes clay soils more open and penetrable to water and air. By the black colour which it imparts to soils, humus causes a greater absorption of heat from the sun’s rays, and hence hastens the warming up of such soils in the spring. Humus plays an important chemical part in soils. By its oxidation carbon dioxide is produced, which enriches the water of the soil with carbonic acid, thereby increasing its power to dissolve mineral substances in the soil. Organic acid are also produced which, though of uncertain composition, without doubt exert an important influence in the decomposition of the rock particles of the soil. Humus also serves as a storehouse for certain elements of fertility. It consists largely of carbon, and the carbon dioxide produced by its oxidation that is not held in solution escapes into the air, thus increasing the amount in the part of the atmosphere in which plants grow. The phosphorus of the original organic tissues is present to a certain extent in the humus, and observations have shown that the phosphorus of humus is a very important part of the available fertility of a soil. Lands deficient in humus may show considerable diminution in wheat yield, due to the lack of phosphorus in the humus. Humus is even more important as a storehouse of nitrogen. Nitrates and ammonium salts are highly soluble nitrogen compounds which are especially suitable for plant use but are liable to be carried away from the soil by drainage, on account of their solubility. The nitrogenous organic residues of the soil are of very slight solubility for the most part, hence are not subject to removal by drainage but are slowly made avilable to plants.