The Waikato Times. THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 1878.

Waikato Times, Volume XI, Issue 893, 14 March 1878, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 1878.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatever state or persuasion, religiou* or political. ***** Here shall the Press the People'a right maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain.

THURSDAY, 14, Perhaps there is no subject of nioro importance to the farmer, or one, the thorough knowledge of which is more conducive to successful agri-

culture, than that to be di-usu.**o.l on Saturday next at the meeting o! tho Cambridge Farmers' Club, munch, the " Rotation of Crops." It is the keystone of good and profitable farming. By attention to it the farmer is is enabled to draw from the soil the largest net return while the oapabiltiies of the land ate at the same time maintained and increased. The rough and ready system of old times was to crop with grain, or as they are technically called " white" crops year after year so long as the land would bear it and then throw the exhausted soil into grass till it recovered its fertility. The Norfolk farmers were the first to break through this wasteful system and establish what is called the four course system, which has been adopted, with variations to suit soil and climate, throughout a great part of England. The four course system consists -Ist year of turnips and Sweedes, the greater part fed upon the ground by sheep \ 2nd year barley, with which is sown a mixture of red clover and ryegrass ; 3rd year seeds (that is the ryegrass, clover &c. sown with the barley) ; and 4th year wheat. In some cases the seeds are left standing two years instead of one, making really a five years course of it, and m some cases, where the land is clover sick, only one half the course is sown with seedsj and the other with winter beans or potatoes, according to the class of land, and its suitability for the one or the other. A bare fallow is now seldom seen on well cultivated farms at home, except m heavy clays — such clays as we have never seen m New Zealand. Although many counties such as Norfolk, where the four course system originated, Lincolnshire, Dorset, Wilts, Hampshire, Berkshire and others adopt it as the rule, others will be found where the rotation takes a wider range. In the East Riding of Yorkskire for instance a favorite plan is a six course system Ist year white turnips and rape ; 2nd year, wheat; 3rd year, sweedes; 4fch year, oats (with which seeds are sown) j sth year, seeds : 6th year, wheat. Here the farmer gets an alternating white and green crop. The land is manured for turnips and sweedes, and the roots being mainly consumed upon the ground leave it m fine condition for the following wheat crop. Few counties are better farmed than East Lothian, j-nd here a six-course system prevails, 1, turnips ; 2. wheat or barley; 3, grass (i.e.) seeds ; k 4, oats ; 5, beans or potatoes ; 6, wheat. The turnips are manured and folded, and the clovei', though not manured, is chiefly consumed upon the ground, a third portion, pel haps, being cut for hay, but on this the aftermath is eaten off, and the land dunged for the succeeding crop of oats. In Nottinghamshire the four-course system is lenghtened to an eightcourse to enable the farmer to produce a greater variety of crops, aud this will come nearer to our colonial requirements, Ist. turnips or swedes ; 2, barley ; 3, grass and clover sown with the barley ; 4, wheat ; 5, mangolds; 6, wheat; 7, beans; 8 wheat. Here again the principle is Ihe same, a root crop, manured, and mainly fed off upon the ground, alternating with a white or grain crop. So far from the soil becoming exhausted by this system of alternate cropping it is found to improve from year to year. Less manure is requisite to produce tho same qaantity of roots and it becomes necessary to check the tendency to rank ness m the straw of the grain crop by a top dressing of 2cwt of salt to the acre m spring. This checks its too exuberant growth and gives firmness to the stalk.

One more rotation and we have done. We refer to it as affording a large opening- to the growth of the potato which is a favorite and often profitable crop m this part of New Zealand. The writer has seen what may be called potato farms along the river Humber m Lincolnshire. There the system is a six-course one and the potato crop appears twice ,that is, occupies annually a third of the arable portion of the farm: 1, potatoes ; 2, wheat; 3, seeds; 4 deeds (top dressed with bone flour or guano) ; 5, potatoes ; 6 wheat. In other cases the farmer, to suit his own requirements, instead of putting a fourth or sixth as the case may be of his arable land m sweedes sows this sixth portion partly with sweedes, part potatoes, part rape or mangolds, cabbages, or any other green crop, but always with a heavy dressing of manure, and the sweedes are fed off on the land. The examples we give will show the variety of what may be introduced into a rotation of crops to suit local demand, texture of soil and other circumstances, and these will always guide the farmer m his choice of a rotation, but m all the principle is the same, the intermixture of such crops as will maintain the .producing 1 powers of the soil unimpaired, or will even increase them.

There is one thing noticeable m these rotations which points to another and important element m deciding what crops shall precede or follow others, Wherever beans are gi-owu wheat folio svs. them. Experience has shown the farmer m many cases that one crop succeeds better after some other particular crop, and vice versa. Science steps m aud tells us why.- In the case mentioned abovo it is found that during the course of its growth the roots of the bean, which, as everyone knows, takes great hold oi' (,lio

permeating it with la-ge si rong- fibres, exudes nn excrements ious matter which is essential^ a food lo bhe wheat "plant rather than t > ill ii of any other grain. In the cm so of linseed and oats the reverse ocenns, and; we torgefc which, the one is. never sown before the .other.

The subject is an interesting one, and will, no d'uibt, receive an able and practical consideration at the hauds of the Cambridge Farmei's' Club. As m many other cases, so m this, it is impossible to lay down any cut and dried rotation which can be expliciily followed by all alike — climate, 'nature of soil, and local position will all have to be taken into consideration, and so too will the amount of grass held m conjunction with the arable land on each farm. Neither are the well tried and accepted systems of Englund wholly suitable for the Colony. Ifc is quite possible, however, that the colonial and home experience possessed by many members of die Club, will lead to some practical result. At any rate, we may look forward to a more than usually interesting discussion.