AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2687, 1 October 1889, Page 2

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE.

The following is a report of the lecture delivered by Mr H. R. Hyatt, at Cambridge West, on September Oth, and it will 110 doubt be fontid highly interesting to those engaged in agricultural pursuits : — The practice of agriculture is the most ancient, and most useful of all occupations; and when followed in a right spirit is most honorable and ennobling. In these days of fortune-hunting and desperate struggles for existence, we are apt to look at our callings as mere money-making schemes. The lioblo mind, however, soars far above such sordid considerations, and places usefulness to his fellow-men as the foremost of all motives, and seeks the good of others as well as, or before, his own. Viewed in this the toil of him who bears the heat and burden of the day, who tdls the fertile soil and draws therefrom the necessaries and luxuries of life for his fellows is the very foundation of all usefulness, and that surely is Lhe foundation of all true nobility. Though mineral products may add dignity and wealth and comfort to a nation, yet without lhe bountiful fruits of the earth such wealth and comfort would be vain, for not only does the cultivator of the soil supply food for those who are working iu our numerous manufactures, but he also pro-vide-s a large, proportion of the raw material, without which such manufactures would be brought to a standstill. So we aro obliged to admit that agriculture must always remain, as it.always has been, the mainstay of every nation. Our own nation, descended as wo are from the stuj'dy farmers on the borders of the North Sea, who have spread their name, their language, and their industry over the face of the whole earth—our nation, I say, in spite of our unequal manufactures and minerals, is decidedly an agricultural nation, and our agricultural produce _ forms a very large proportion of our national wealth. Or let us take America as an examplo of a younger and more modern country. Her agricultural and pastoral products for 1880 amounted to £004,000,000, for which W00,000,000 were directly dependent on agriculture for raw material. Thus you see how important it is that our children should not bo allowed to grow up without some knowledge of this great source of wealth ; and as our agriculture is every day being benefitted by the discoveries of science, the study of agricultural science should bo one of the principal branches of our national education. Such, then, is the important subject to which I wish to call your attention this evening. Oimkcts of the Farmer.—ln order to get a clear idea of our subject, we had bettor begin by considering the chief objects sought after iu cultivating the soil. Yon will perhaps say that the farmers' chief object is to get the largest possible crops out of the soil. Well, that is certainly a very plausible object, but it requires modifying. Our soil is limited; it must last our life time, and that of our posterity after us, and, therefore, it would be the greatest folly to exhaust all its richness in one or two fine crops. Our farmers have been very negligent on this point, and it is in such cases as this that science comes to our assistance, with wholesome, and reasonable advice. Let it be distinctly understood that by science, I do not mean mere insipid, dry facts stored and bound up in tedious books. I have no respect for a farmer or any any other man who keeps all his brains on the book-shelf. The farmer who uses his brains and his eyes, who takes notice and profits by the results of certain manures, appliances, etc., is just as much a scientific man as one who writes a book, and perhaps more so. For science is only another name for common sense, cultivated and made more prolific by systematic application. Exhaustion ok Soils.—Many farmers, votaries to the ancient and venerable rule of thumb, and staunch opponents of newfangled notions and scientific innovations, have ruined themselves, and turned tiieir farms into barren wildernesses, by rejecting the common-sense notion that you cannot get something out of nothing. They have sought to get out of the ••soil more than was in it, and consequently have not only failed in their object, but have done a positive injury to the soil. We have many clear instances of this in New South Wales, and I daresay, also in New Zealand. Fifty years ago, a Polish Count, with an unpronounceable name, visited New South Wale--, and, as a guest of the Australian Agricultural Company, visited their estates at Port Stephens and elsewhere, and supplied much valuable information. He published several analyses of different soils, which have been proved by recent investigations t.» have been remarkably correct. In these he pointed out the nature of the soils, and their various requirements, in order to maintain their fertility. But his advice and warnings were, little heeded, and what is the consequence? Instead of the land improving under cultivation, as it should do with proper management, it has so deteriorated that in many instances ita cultivation has been abandoned. In one of the districts experimented upon by him, the following analyses were given

Organicmatter and moisture ... 24'97 Silica Alumina and iron V,!™ Carbonate of lime.. 2'70 Sulphate of lime Magnesia Trace. The same soil was analysed a year ago under the direction of the Boarrl of Technical Education of New South Wales, having long been out of cultivation. The results aro as follows Organic matter and water ... lo'7o Silica .... 57 "SO Alumina and iron ... ... 20'07 Lime O'nl Magnesia 007 Potash 0 03 Chloride of sodium (salt) . ... o'o2 Phosphoric oxide o'o'i Sulphuric oxide ... ... ... o'o7 A comparison of the two analyses will bo very instructive. Whilo tho alumina and iron, which form the mere substanco of the soil, have increased largely, nil the plant food have been all but extracted, leaving tho soil thoroughly exhausted and unable to grow any nsoful crop. On referring to tho statistics published by tho Government of that colony, we learn that Paramatta, Liverpool, Maitland and other districts have been abandoned as wheatgro»ving districts, owing to unskilful farming and exhaustion of the soil. Such is a very sad Htatn of affairs, and let us hope that it may not have to be said of our own district after o0 years of cultivation. As a second step in the subject of our lecture, let us lay it down as an axiom that a good farmer will seek to raise tho best possible crops with the least possible injury to the soil, and it is here perhaps that science renders the most valuable assistance to the farmer. Cheshire Dairy Farms.—Nearly a century ago it was found in Cheshire, which has always been a famous dairy county, that the butter and cheesa products were decreasing both in quantity and quality. Many reasons were guessed at without any profitable results, until some scientific person—i.o. a man of common sense, first thought of taking into consideration the chemical composition of milk, which .by means of the cows was constantly being drawn out of the soil. Tho milk, being the natural food of growing calves must contain a largo amount of bone-making material, or as wo call it, phospiiato of lime. The plants upon which tho cows feed must get it out of the ground. When one person had made this discovery, of course, everybody saw how simple it was, and wondered that they had never thought of it before. Tho experiment was therefore tried, and the exhausted soils wore treated with an application of ground bones, with tho most satisfactory results. The daity farms were not only restored to Mieir original fruitfulness, but in many caaes decidedly improved. It has since been found that most of our crops, being intended as food for either men or animals, make a special demand on tho soil for this bone-forming material, phosphate of lime, and therefore bonedust has become the favourite and must valuable of all our artificial manures.

Composition of Bonks.—Bones are composed of f>(! % phosphate of lime 30 /„ glue 6 % water and fat 2 "/ magnesia ana nther salts (i % carbonate of lime. You see that nearly the whole of the mineral part of bones consists of phosphate of lime. This is a compound of phosphoric acid and lime. Phosphoric acid also forms nearly the whole of the inorganic portion of the brain. It is therefore absolutely indispensable as a food to all vertebrate animals, especially the young ones who need it to supply their growth. Strange as H may appear, this phosphorous, which, in its simple state is a deadly poison, in the compound form of phosphate of lime, is an absolutely indispensable food for all animal lifj. Nature, through the instrumentality of plants, prepares this and othor mineral foods in such a way as to render them suitable and wholesome for animals to eat. The element phosphorous was accidentally discovered by a German alchemist when searching after a liquid that would turn silver into goTd. This was a little over a hundred years ago. PiiosriiATK of Limk is found in small quantities in most rocks and soils, but chiefly in volcanic, which aro also rich in potash, lime, magnesia, &c. This accounts for the rich productiveness of most volcanic soils. Phosphate of lime, however, is limited in supply, and therefore is liable, to exhaustion unless under skilful management. Fortunately, it is only slightly soluble in water—it takes 10,000 gallons of water to dissolve a.',lbs. of it—thus it is only dissolved in small quantities in slow degrees, as it is required by the plants, and only a small portion is wasted by being washed out of the soil by rains. Its solubility, however, is somewhat increased by tho carbonic acid and ammonia which the rain washes out of tho air and carries down with it into the soil. Thus the rain water passing through the soil is constantly bringing the phosphate of lime in the sml into an available form of plant food, just in tho quantities, from time to time, as required by tho growing plants; and if you burn the plants and analyse their ashes you ag;iin find the phosphate as well as other minerals in its original form.

Wastk. —Valuable and scarco as this mineral is, it is astonishing to know how extravagantly it is wasted. In all our largo towns it is thrown heedlessly into rivers or into the sen, where it can never ho reclaimed by men. The amount of this insane waste has been estimated at thousands of pounds per annum, and to make up for it we have to spend thousands more in sending our ships to all parts of the world to fetch guano and other substitutes of what we wilfully cast from us in our ignorance or stupidity. Add to this the fact that the rivers and harbours are poisoned by the foul refuse we cast therein, and become the sources of the most frightful diseases. Professor IMack is of opinion that it is to this foolish waste of phosphate of lime that the fall and decay of so many mighty empires aro duo. What has become of the wealthy and powerful Babylon, tho mighty empire of the Medes and Persians, of Nineveh and its wonders, of the expended dominions of Alexandor the (ireat, and of Rome, the Mistress of the World? Their glory is departed, and their placo is left desolate. Places spoken of in history and in Scripture as the most verdant plains and smiling gardens are nowdeserted, bare, arid wildernesses. Why should the fertile garden become a wilderness? If the ancient inhabitants of those countries were as wasteful and thoughtless and ignorant in respect to their phosphate of lime as we have been, those results are just as might be expected. Many of tho modern visitors to tho little land of Palestine, in its present forlorn and desolate aspect, naturally feel rather sceptical as to tho Biblical the land flowing with milk and honey. But when we consider the enormous population supported by that little tract of country, wo cannot reasonably doubt the extreme fertility that it must have enjoyed in the past; and such n large population, with their flocks and their herds, must have demanded a very large supply of this boneformtug material from the soil. The supply being limited the fertility of the soil came to an end, and it is now, to a large extent, barren and uncultivated. Let us take another illustration. The population of Franco is now stationary, if not on the, decrease. The average stature of the inhabitants is likewise diminishing, for it is said that the minimum standard height required in recruits for the army has more than once had to be lowered owing to the difficulty of finding men of tho required standard. Is it not probable that these facts are owing to the short allowance of bone-forming material, owing to the enormous waste of phosphate of lime? All the crops that they grow are carried into their large town on the bank of some river, through which the phosphorus and other valuable constituents find their way into the sea. To be sure, we are just as wasteful when we havo the opportunity in the colonies, but the effects have not had time to show themselves, and by means of borrowed money and other ways we import at a great expense artificial manures to take the place of what wo wasto so largely in our large towns. Eoh'T and China.—Of all the great nations of antiquity the only ones that have retained tho fertility of thoir soils are Egypt and China. It is well-known that tho fertility of Egypt is kept up by the periodic flooding of the Nile, which every year leaves a sediment which has supported a constant cultivation from time immemorial. The Chinese by careful economy and by strictly avoiding all waste, have maintained tho fertility of their soil and perpetuated their form of civilisation through countless ages, and have witnessed the rise and fall of many a proud empire in the more extravagant West. There is no wasto animal or vegetable substance which will not make a useful manure when it is dccayed ; and these should, therefore, be caiefullv stowed on the refuse heap until in a lit state to bo put 011 tho land. A little lime sprinkled through tho heap will hasten decay, and add many useful qualities to the produce. It is a very common practice to bum rubbish. 111 this way the mineral Constituents or ashes are saved, and form a

valuable manure; but by tho process of burning all the ammonia, and other volatile substances fly away into the air, and aro lost, while, by a slow decay, all these, as well as the mineral constituents, will bo retained. As ammonia is a very expensive form of manure, we cannot be too careful in saving it up wherever we can, and it is sad to think that so much of it is wasted. Straw.—Many farmers also make a mistake in burning straw or the waste matter of their stacks. This is a most suicidal practice, especially m a district like ours, whero the land is so poor in organic matters. As I have said before, all vegetable and animal waste should bo_ carefully saved, and when decayed put into the land. It is a well-known fact that in lease agreements there is generally a clause forbidding the sale of any straw off the farm. This is because straw is a great drain oil tile mineral constituents of the soil, much more so than tho wheat which derives the greater part of its substanco from tiie air. It is therefore advisable that all straw should be rotted or fermented, and returned as a manure to the soil. It is better not to plough it into the ground as it is, as this would have a tendency to keep the land more open than it is, which would bo very undesirable with a light soil like ours. Guickm Manuiib.—As organic matter is the chief deficiency of our Waikato soils, they may be greatly improved bv ploughing in green crops grown for that purpose. The chief virtues of this kind of proceeding are :ts follows (1), A green crop thus ploughed in, besides returning to the land all it took out, also adds certain substances, such as carbon and ammonia which it abstracted from the air ; (2), it acts chemically on the dormant constituents of the soil; (3), it causes the land to hold its moisture longer, and thus modifies the injury done by droughts ; (4), it absorbs moisture from the air in tho form of dew ; (;>), it acts like a trap in holding the soluble parts of the soil, and not allowing them to be washed out by tho rains. Aktificial Manukks.— Besides improving tho land in the ways stated above, much may be done by the application of artificial manures. By the judicial use of these we may return to the soil in a cheaper form, such substances as may have been taken up by certain crops; or by adding some necessary constituent to tho soil in which it was previously deficient, we may greatly add to its fruitfulness. Many of the blights, insects, and other evils which cause so mvich trouble, could bo obviated by the cultivation of a rich, healthy soil. Plants, like animals, if they are insufficiently or improperly fed, becomo a prey to diseases and parasites, so the best way to obviate these is to supply the soil with all the necessary plant-foods, and to remove, if necessary, any noxious matters which might injure the health of the plants. Conclusion. —In a single lecture on so broad a subject, I have been able to touch, but very slightly upon the diHerentsubjects, I have mentioned; but they are all subjects of vital importance to each of us individually, and to our community collectively, For our own welfare, and the prosperity of our colony generally, are primarily dependent on the proper cultivation of our soil. And it is my earnest hope that the young people of this colony will make this branch of science a subject of deep _ thought and study ; and thus increase their own usefulness, and become a blessing to their coun-

try. In opening the lecture we remarked that the chief object of the fanner is to produce the largest crops, but from tho various matters I have treated, the need of modification is obvious. We will say, then, that while raising large crops, we should seek not to injuie tho soil, but rather improve its fertility and fruitfulness.