Agricultural. FOUL LAND.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2218, 25 September 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

Agricultural. FOUL LAND.

The question is often asked, what is the best way to clear foul laud of couch or , twitch and other weeds. A correspondent of an English agricultural paper gives the following directions, which, seem likely to be snitable, as the labour bill would be less thau it would be under the summer fallowing, and frequent working usually recommended :—" Many years" since, it was much the custom for farmers to plough in green crops both to clean the land and. also to enrich it; and I have often been told by old and practical farmers that a crop of vetches so fanned— that is, ploughed in— put j more manure into the land, yes and' for several succeeding crops, than if they had been eaten off by sheep with a' liberal allowance of corn or cake. To' this day much poor land iv Belgium is so treated, ,aud I have been told by friends who have travelled in Lorabardy that' much, of that very rich land is also Ao treated. Where farmers are circumstauced as the foregoing remarks imply,, the best way isito sow at once ■ about half a bushel of mustard after onee 1 ploughing,! and a harrowing or two, or drill the seed if preferred. Let them' sow half a bushel of seed; so that the crop may come up very thickly indeed, and grow much more quickly iir conse- > quence. In about ten or twelve weeks, i or., directly ifc has got into' flower,! / heads, then, let >it .be ploughed under, a plough trace with an iron weight, of some sort being placed' on the mould board of the plough to drag; the plant in. , Directly • the ' root i crop is ploughed under, let ■ a second be sown again with as much seed per acre; and the operation of ploughing under and pressing be repeated. Then the land will be in capital order, for a crop of wheat. ' 01' | course if some artificial manure be added so much ,the better. If the land be very foul and full of rubbish, the mu«tard, where sown twice, will choke it 'all." ' ' „ , , • For those who are able to give plenty of labour,l;q,the Jtand the, following course is said t!o be effective : — T^er^ons having foul land should, attack the, weeds at every opportunity, when the ground, is dry, ,as it'isno, use , attempting cleaning; it whent damp', or the w.eather showery. , Early in autumn or late in, spring I consider, ,the beat times',. as th,eh r less risk is run of,inter'ruption from , showers. . Twitch, .and other ' root weeds of ,the class, ,mostly lrye within a few inches of the surf ape, the bulk, being' in the top , three inches. ■ The land should not be ploughed at all, but attacked at once with ,a grubber, having ', points from six to, eight inches broad. , These should be set to out, from two to two, and a-half inches deep, and with a four-foot grubber and land badly matted with root weeds, three or four horses will be required., About five acres a day can , be easily gone over in this 'manner and should be well harrowed, by open, long-tootbed,, heavy harrows. ' Th,e tines, of these harrows will penetrate very easily to .the bottom of the turf, thrown up by the grubber, and when thoroughly shaken iout, the weeds may be easily freed, frqm any , ad; mixture of, earth, and gathered, intj rolls ,by one or two turns of the chain harrows. The weeds may then be gathered into heaps by women or boys with light steel forks ; <?r,if well shaken out they may be raked into rows by the. horse hay rake, when i;hey may be, burned, on i the ground^ As , soon as the ground iis .cleared, the grubber should be again sent across at right angles to the former course, another inch of [ depth being given. This , will bring the most of what was left the first timo to the surface, which may be open harrowed | and then chain harrowed as before. If it is found that a good number of weeds have not yet been brought to the surface, another grubbing may be given, an extra inch or so of depth being taken more than at the second time. If the grubbing is worked properly, and sufficient harrowings have been given, it is very seldom a third doing is required, but if the laSid be very foul^he time spent at the work will not be lost. Nothing like the amount of harrowings is required for the second or third grubbings that is necessary for the first, as the lumps are larger and firmer than at any of the subsequent grubbings. By grubbiDg without ploughing the turf gets broken up into smaller pieces; and the soil being only operated on which contains the' weeds, they are much more easily shaken out of three inches than if six or nine inches were operated on. After being so grubbed, ( harrowed, the land should get one good deep ploughing, -when it will be ready to be planted 1 with potatoes or sown with turnips.

Five 'million people are engaged in the dairy business in the' United States, raising a product valued at 500,000, OOOdols. a year. The dairy capital of New York 'alone i&i300,600,000dols. There are in the country' 15.000,000 cows^ producing '1^000,000,000 pounds of butter and 300,000,000 pounds of cheese annually. The Young Wheat Plant. — Should this look sickly, and ilh'e ground at all caked, it will be found an excellent plan to run a moderate li&ht pair of harrows over the crop 1 up and down and across" walking 1 the horses at a brisk pace. There is no fear of tearing up too many of the young plants, but 1 the work must be done when the soil is dry on the surface ; roll immediately afterwards. Seeds may be sown at the same time. Grass Land; from which it is in« tended to take a crop of hay, should have all' stock immediately removed, all 'manure 'droppings should be scattered, stones, &c, and receive a turn or two of a heavy harrow, followed by the roller ; by attending to these hints the mowing machines can be set closer to the ground ; as it is said, "an inch at thepbottom is worth two at the top!" i Lucerne. —This useful forage plant deserves a place on every stock farm ; it revels in deep alluvial soil, which must be dry and have a dry subsoil, it will, however, thrive on any good dry soil. To grow it to the best advantage, the ground should be deeply ploughed and subsoiled. Under such conditions we know of no plant which will continue to yield for so long a time, such an abundance of succulent feeding stuff, and is relished alike by all kinds of stock ; it will remain good ' for five or six years, requiring only an occasional top-dressing of manure, and an annual tearing with the harrows to loosen the surface soil ; these operations should be performed in the beginning of winter. The quantity of seed sown per acre varies according to the quality of the soil, from 10 to*H and even 201bs. It may be sown separately or with spring corn in the same manuer as i red clover, but should not be mixed with these seeds. Lucerne should be largely sown in the northern portion of the North Island wherever the soil is suitable, as it revels in a warm climate. Lucerne is the mainstay of the Queensland farmers. — N Z. Country Journal.

It is very comforting to a man who is just recovering from a lingering illness, and has managed to crawl out to the gate on a warm, sunshiny day, to get air, to have a neighbour come along and shout cheerily ", Hullo ! Boen away, haven't you! Had a good time ? . You are looking well." The Rev. JanKJS Patterson, of Philadelphia, once said, in a <• tele of his brethren, that he thousrht ministers ought to be humble and poor. "I have often prayed," said he, '"that I migh* be kept humble; I never pr.jyed that I might 'be poor — I could trust my church for 'jihat!;' " A' Medical journal asks : "How deep is"' sleepi'" That depends upon circumstances. If a fourteen year old boy is called half an hour befpre breakfast to go on an errand his sleep is about a mile and a half deep. If a fire bell founds an alarm its depth is not more than seven eighths of an inch.