ON THE LAND

New Zealand Tablet, 20 February 1919, Page 43

ON THE LAND

v : ; BEEKEEPING. ; Strong evidence of the wide interest in beekeeping - amongst residents of Christchurch and surrounding districts is given by the growth of the Christchurch Amateur Beekeepers’ Club. It was stated at the field day held at Halswell the other week, that the club was established about two years ago with a membership of 44, and had now on its list of financial members 76. Mr. E. E. Patten, the secretary of the club, remarked that he had learned more from his expenditure of half-a-crown a year—his subscription as a member of the clubthan he had from scientific instruction costing many guineas. A feature of the club’s activities is the monthly field days, held during the honey season, at which practical demonstrations are given, and addresses of a practical nature are given; and also the meetings held during the winter months, when subjects of interest to beekeepers are discussed. A noteworthy feature of the last field day was the presence of a large number of lady members of the club. They showed great keenness and plied the Government experts who were present with many questions relating to the practical side of beekeeping. As further evidence of the importance of the honey industry it is stated that some Christchurch people who have taken up apple orchards in the Nelson district are also taking up beekeeping as a valuable adjunct to fruitgrowing. —r~ i ■ m hum SOIL-FERTILITY QUESTIONS. If you can give me any information on the following I shall be obliged (writes a correspondent to the N.Z. Agricultural Journal):— Take two farms, with similar soil originally— 1 has been well looked after, top-dressed, etc., and is in really good heart; No, 2 has been neglected and is in poor condition. If both get the same good treatment henceforth, how long, approximately, would it take No. 2 to overhaul No. 1 ? Or will No. 2 always be the inferior farm unless it gets better treatment than No. 1 ? People speak of a farm as always having been “done well,” implying that the manure sown nine or ten years ago is giving results even now; but there must be some limit to the beneficial effects of even bonedust. The Fields Division gives the following information in reply;—The condition of soils known as “fertility” is a very complex matter indeed. When a soil is really run down this has generally been brought about by taking off successive white crops or hay, and the reduced fertility may be due to lack of readily available plantfood material in the surface soil, or to lack of lime, or lack of humus. Probably it is the lack of humus which gives rise to the most pronounced run-down condition of soils, and this is a lack which does not arise under a "grazing system of utilising land. Comparative unfertility due to reduction of the humuscontent of a soil can be restored only by degrees, and with difficulty, whereas a simple lack of mineral ingredients can be rapidly overcome by the application of suitable manures. There is another aspect of the matter which must not be lost sight of. When land remains in pasture for a number of years there is a gradual accumulation of humus on the surface. What

is necessary, then, is to get it mixed up with, the soil! by ploughing and cultivation, converting it from a more or less sour inactive condition ' to ;an active ‘'agent in promoting fertility. With this very, brief explanation as a basis we would say that if farm No. 2 is ploughed and using small dressings of lime and ‘ ordinary dressings of phosphatic fertilisers, and is then laid down, it will within a year or two equal in production farm No. 1. A further question may be anticipated namely, as to whether the act of topdressing Without renewal by cultivation might not bring farm No. 2to the condition of farm No. 1. This is more than doubtful. Whereas good-class clovers and grasses may be retained in a pasture by top-dressing, it is practically impossible to bring them back by such means after they have been replaced by couches and weeds. VARIETIES OP MANGELS. ! One cannot be too careful in these days with regard to the selection of seeds, and more especially the variety or type (says a writer in Farm Field, and Fireside Much depends on the. strain of any particular seed, and it is no use thinking that the cheapest seeds are just as good as the most expensive. The larger the bulk of food, whether it be for animals or human beings, we can produce from a given area the better. For a general crop there are few varieties of mangels to equal a good strain of Yellow Globe. I have tried all varieties at one time and another, but for a good yielding crop for general utility the Yellow Globe is difficult to beat, provided the seed is from a reliable strain I may say that I also grow a few Mammoth Long Red, but whether these be grown or not depends very much upon the nature of the soil. They always do best in a deep, friable, but fairly retentive loam. Long Reds are always useful for late keeping, as, on the whole they keep sounder for a longer, period than do the Globe varieties. The Orange Globes are undoubtedly more nutritious than the yellows, but one can never get the same weight per acre, and the increase in nutritive properties certainly does not compensate one for the shortage in yield. Long Reds are always more expensive to raise, as they cannot be so quickly pulled up as the' Globe varieties. In fact, when grown on soils overlying a clay subsoil they resemble sugar beet, inasmuch as the roots become very forked, and on being lemoved much of the clayey subsoil is found adhering to the fang-like roots. Mangels are often left too late before pulling, and this is a great mistake, as the labor bill is_ very much less if they are lifted when the groundis dry ; while, apart from this, they require less cleaning. It is all very well to allow them to finish their growth and for the bulbs to swell up to their maximum, but too often any slight increase in size does not compensate for the extra cost of living during bad weather; and, besides, wheat-sowing is often sadly delayed in consequence.