GREEN MANURING.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 268, 9 November 1895, Page 3 (Supplement)

GREEN MANURING.

Ln-B the bare fallowing of land tbe system 0 [ ploughing in green crops as a manure for the land has been followed from tho earliest! times. The practice was one largely adopted by the ancienb Romans, add the Italian farmers of the present day. following the custom of their forefathers, owlncerne an( j other leguminous plants for ploughing in. In the United Stat6B and Britain rye vetches, white mustard, etc, are turned in, and in China in preparing rice land it is üßnal to £row and plough in a variety of trefoil as manure. All varieties of green cropa, pond weeds, the parings of hedges and ditches, or in fact any kind of fresh vegetable matter, require no preparation to fib them for manure, but need merely to ba buried in tbe soil. As long jsitianob devoid of moisture, the drier ond warmer the soil ia the quicker the decomposition will proceed. In any case under the soil the decomposition of vegetable mafcterisslow. Thesolublematterearegradu.ally dissolved, and the slight fermentation that goes on, checked by the want of free communication with the air, tends to render the woody fibre soluble without iay accompanying waste of volatile matter, as ia the caso when fermentation of vegetation proceeds in the open air. Tho great point when green cropa are grown and ploughed in to manure the soil is to cat at the righb time, bhat ia, just when the flowers are beginning to opon. The plants then contain the largest quantity of soluble e_bstanceß

A fault of many colonial farmers is that tbey try to take too much from the soil ffithoo. making any return, and plead tho eipense of fertilisera aa their excuse. In green manuring, however, no outlay is required, aod no better fertiliser .can bo used tban tho turning under of greenstuff o! any kind, so long aa it is green and not too woody. It is asserted by some agricultural chemists that a green crop ploughed in enriches the soil as much aa dun? from sbock, which cab three times as much food as bbab ploughed in. In all leguminous crops, and moro especially in the case of bhe field pea and the clovers, a largo amounb of ealbs are obtained from the subsoil and stored up in the plant, .bile by the action of the root nodulea, nitrogen, from the air in the soil, ia made available for planb food. When bhese plants are ploughed into the soils, they not only add mineral matter which was not there before, but which, by their penetrating roots they have pumped up from tho subsoil, but they also, add a certain amounb of available nitrogen won from the ar>. Dr, Harlan, an authority on the subjecb, states that "a good crop of clover would contain on one acre ISOlbs of nitrogen, 37_lbs phosphoric acid, and 171bs of potash—a very heavy dreseing for an acre of land." Then the action of a green manure ia not confined to the amount of necessary plant constituents ibsuppliea to thesoU, its mechanical action also being beneficial. In the decay of all vegetable matter a large amounb of carbonic acid gas ia evolved, which, when in solution, forma a powerful .olvenb of the mineral substances in the soil required by plants. Another importJin. advantage of green crop manuring ia fiie great facility ib offers for the deatruction of weeda. By ploughing in two or three crops of a quick growing planb, weeds may be smothered by the more luxuriant growth of their neighbours, and completely deatroyed by tho ploughings. A common practice in Norfolk (England) is to plough in white mustard aa a preparation for wheat, and ib is eaid not only to acb as a fertiliser, but to destroy the wire worm—a very common enemy of the colonial farmer. In selecting a crop for green manuring, the farmer has to be guided by local circumstances. A general rule _honld nevertheless be borne in taind ; the plant selected for bhe purpose should have a quick, abundanb growth,and when ib combines thia quality with deeply penetrating roots, the more marked fill be the effect produced by its being haried in the coil.

Tke Taranaki Stock Markets.—Messrs Solan, Tonks and Co. reporb under dabe ot" Hawera, November 4th, as follows .-— At Opunake, on 29th insb., there waa a good entry, bub competition elaok- At Kakaramea on 31st we had a large entry, and keen bidding throughout, most lines being sold at auction. Wo quote—Ab Opunake: 15 month heifers, 34s 6d to 37a 6d ; calves. 18a 6d to 20..; weaners, 24a to 28.. ; yearJinga, 38s to £2 ; 2 year steers, £2 15a . 3 .ear bullocks, £3 16e ; apringer?, £4 to £4 JOs; store cow., £2 12a 6d to £2 lUa. At Kakaramoa: Weanera, 24a 6d to 29.. ; calves, 18. to 21s ; 18 month ateere, £2 9to£2 lis ; 2yeareteere, £2 16a to £3 ; 3 year eteera, £4 6s 6d to £4 10a ; forward bullocks, £5 5s ; empty cows, £2 12s 6d to f2l6s; fat cows, £4 13s ; yoarlings, 36s 6d to £2; shorn ewes, 7s;

. Regulation, of Sex.--An article in the Veterinarian ' on the 'Determination and Regulation of Sex in the Breeding of Worses' gives a condensed account of the "tteatigationa of Profeetor Wilekens, of Vienna, on. the aubject. Hiß observations fiavo been very extensive, and by correspondence with breeders he has been enabled to bring under review tbe circumfkan_e_ attending tbe birth of sixteen thousand foals. The normal proportion 01 colts to fillies he gives as 97 -3 c?Us to 100 fillies, and when bhe proportlo" greatly varies from this sbandard 6°n)6 reason has to be found for the variation. Professor Wilekens ie of opinioD 'ha. ccx ia determined when the dam has Passed aboub one-third of tbe period of gestation, and that its determination ia [JKulated chiefly by bhe bodily condition of «a mother at the time, and that a wellJourished ice.us is more likely to be a

\ female than a male. He considers that, 1,1 co far as stallions are concerned, Jje seems to exercise bub little influence « determining ccx, while aa regards mares «ie cas« i 8 somewhat different. This be also puts down aa the reaulb of nourwhtoent, in the dam—the old mares being nob •o'Strong aa the young onea. Proteaeor 'Mlckena'a theory is by no means new. lb !> the old one thab when bhe dam is in good Edition— whioh means b|hab she bas food

in abundance—she reproducea more of her ccx to perpetuate her raoe; while poverty and want lead to the production of a superabundance of males, thus putting a check on the multiplication of the species where the conditions are unfavourable to its prosperous existence.

The Pig Trade in Denmark. — The breed of piga in Denmark is not usually Danish ab all; on the contrary, the original animals come principally from Yorkshire and Berkshire. This is curious in itself. Denmark imports English pigs, breeds from them, fattens them, sends them back as bacon, and still secures a profit. The pig trade, concurrently with the butter trade, has increased enormously in Denmark. In Copenhagen every morning the pig market is quite a feature of the day's proceedings. Carts laden wibh the carcases arrive from the country or the station at very early hours, until tho markeb place is quite fall, and the babol of voices tremendous. Tho Pig Market is altogether a quaint acene, with its curious double-windowed .hops as a background. These double shr >» are very peculiar. The bottom one is ba'.' 'lelow tho surface of the pavement, and the customer requires to go down a few steps to gain admittance. The top shop is immediately above the lower one, the windows literally adjoining, and tbe customer to gain admittance must go up ateps ab the other side. The result ia striking ; while in the lower half pork sausages or saddlery are exhibited for sale, dainty bonnets and pretty laces occupy the upper storey. With such a quaint background the pig market becomes a very picturesque scene, but th_3 does not prevent ib being remunerative. It is nob by making butter alone that we might earn money, bub by rearing piga on the milk lefb from the butter-making. Pig-rearing under auch circumabances Tb an extremely profitable trade. Danish money-making does nob atop ab butter and piga, however, for Denmark makea £400,000 a year oub of her egg exporb alone. England's import ot eggs is about half a million a day.