MR H. R. HYATT ON AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2781, 10 May 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

MR H. R. HYATT ON AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE.

On Friday evening Mr Hyatt delivered a ' lecture on the above subject in the Cam--1 bridge West school to a large and spprecia- ' tive audience. Mr Trewin, who occupied the i chair, introduced the lecturer, and at the finish proposed a hearty vote of thanks to ■ Mr Hyatt, which was carried by aeclama- [ tion. The following is a short synopsis of i the lecture. _ Mr Hyatt commencod by calling attention to the fact that agriculture ' was tho most ancient, as well as the most useful of all undertakings. It should also be the most honourable and enoblmg, for our aims should rise above mere money- : making. The Good Book said, " Let him who is greatest among you be the servant of ■ all." And so it was with the farmer, for he was the servant of all, and a servant that ■ could not be dispensed with, for all wealth came directly or indirectly from the earth. Mineral products and manufactures add wealth and dignity to a nation, but even these are dependent on agriculture. From 1 its remotest antiquity the English nation 1 had been an agricultural one, as had also the American. In the year 1880 the agricultural products of Britain were valued at £1)04,000,000, and its manufactures at £1,112,000,000. To produce the latter £400,000,000 worth of raw material was used. At first sight this might not appear to affect the farmer, but when you thought of the enormous amount of food and clothing required by the workers it made a considerable item. The main object of the farmer was to produce large crops, but at the same time to avoid exhausting the soil; and this I may be prevented by scientific knowledge. The word scieuce is derived from "scio,'' to know; and may be said to be experience and common sense. Experience includes experiments ; therefore, science is the accumulation and classification of past experience. Many farmers had a great respect for, and belief in, the ancient and venerable " rule of thumb " that had been practised by their forefathers for generations. In these go-ahead days the rule of thumb would not do ; the supply of farmyard manure was not equal to the demand and consequently the land became exhausted and failures were the result. An example of this was afforded by some land in New South Wales. Fifty years ago the land was analysed by a Polish count, who advised the settlers not to keep on cropping the land without in some way returning the parts abstracted by the crops. The warning was unheeded and the laud had now been abandoned and had gone back to its native scrub, and even that did not grow nearly as luxuriously as formorly. It had lately been analysed by the Board of Technical Education and they could see the result. (Both analyses were exhibited on a black-board.) This should prove a warning to farmers, whose aim should be to got the largest crops without exhausting the soil. The first use of artificial manure was made in Cheshire, which, as most people were aware, was a cheese-producing county. The pastures were becoming exhausted and the industry was languishing, and indeed appeared likely to die out; when about 100 years ago one of the farmers thought he would have the cheese analysed and find out what it was that they were continually sending away in such quantities. He found that milk contained a large percentage of phosphoric acid, and also that bones contained a quantity of it in the shape of phosphate of limo ; consequently he put bones upon the land and the effect was at once apparent. Since then the application of bonedust has become almost universal. Had it been butter that was made upon the Cheshire farms, it would not have exhausted the soil to anything like so great an extent, as it is largely composed of carbon which is supplied by the air. At this point tho lecturer gave a thorough and lucid explanation of the composition of bones ; illustrating the action of the various chemicals with experiments. Speaking of chemical manures Mr Hyatt said ; If we analyse the substance of any crop, we get the following ingredients which I will divide into three groups. 1. Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen; these constituents are abundantly supplied bv the air and rain. 2. soda, magnesia, sulphuric acid, chlorine, oxide of iron, and silica; most soil is super-abundantly supplied with these, and it is therefore quite unneccessary to add them in the form of manure. 3. nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash and lime ; these the soil posses only in a limited extent, and the deficiency is supplied by artificial manures. These thirteen constituents of vegetable substance must all be present if we are to procure any crop worth harvesting. The total absence of any one ingredient will render all the other twelve little mere than useless no matter how abundant they may be ; but as groups one and two are, except in very rare cases, sufficiently supplied by natme, the farmers' attention must be chiefly confined to the four substances in group three. With a manure containing these four materials, nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash, and lime, it is said that crops of from 30 to 50 bushels of wheat per acre can be raised from the poorest soils, and the other crops in the sair.e proportion. Of course the different ingredients would have to be arranged in different proportions to suit the requirements of different crops; thus wheat and other cereals make a special demand on the soil for nitrogen, turnips for phosphoric acid, and potatoes for potash, i In order to test the deficiencies of any i soil, as far as these four important ] plant-foods are concerned, the following i five experiments may be made simul- I taneously on small plots of ground, of 1 equal size, the same crop being sown in (

each, the seed being carefully divided by i weight. In one plot the whole four 1 manures are applied, but in one nitrogen is \ omitted, in another phosphoric acid, in t another lime, andin the other potash, If ( the plot unsupplied with phosphoric acid i should produce a crop equal to that raised v on the first plot, where all the four manures c were used, then the natural conclusion is c that the soil experimented upon is suffi- o ciently supplied with that material and g such manure is not needed—at any rate for '} the present. The other plots would be a judged in the same way. Mr Hyatt o thought the time would oome when far- h mers would understand more of agricul- t tural science, and when it would be con- r sidered a disgrace to only raise 18 bushels n of wheat to the acre. He considered it a n most important subject, and thought it « should be taught in all schools—especially I country ones. b We should like to have treated this h matter at greater length, but pressure on o our space percludes our going more than a b resume or the lecture. However, those a who are desirous of becoming better ac- ti quainted will have an opportunity of doing u so by joining Mr Hyatt's class that is r< about to commence. We trust it may have oi a long and successful career ; useful it can- u not help but be to any one engaged in agri- n: cultural pursuits. st