AGRICULTURAL NEWS.

Bush Advocate, Volume VII, Issue 650, 16 July 1892, Page 5

AGRICULTURAL NEWS.

I Here, according to Health, aro tho dotaUs of | i a bill for horso meat in Paris, and no ono will deny to the Parisians that they know how to eat and what to cat. Tho people of Paris have consumed withiutho \car 21,..91 hoi-Ecs, 229 donkeys, and -10 mules, thtnneat woigbiug according to the returns -1,1)1.3 tons. At tho ISO shops audstalls wbcro this kind of food is sold tho pries has varied from '-'d. a lb. to 10d., tho latter being the price for superior horse steaks. But only about one-third of the moat \3 Bold fresh and undisguised ; the rest is used in making sausages, and it should bo added that •102 horses were seized and csndemncd as unfit for food. * According to experiments carried out by some German chemists, a horse weighing half a ton requires daily 181 b., of oati and 101 b. of hay and straw mixed in equal proportions, to enable him to perform his customury daily work on a farm. As to tho kiml of food, tho composition of oats is said to render them superior to any other grain in the feeding of working horses. Maize is well suitod for the fattening of animals, but not so well adapted to tho building up of their skeletons. It is of all the ordinary grains, rico exenpted, tho poorest in limo, containing too email an amount for a rapidly growing animal. Oats, on tho contrary, increase the muscular forco, and hasten tho work of bone-forming. A curious and interesting fact brought out by tho same experiments ia that if two lota of horso3 are fed respectively on large oats grown on rich laud, aud on email graraod oat 3 grown on poorer laud, the latter will be found to hivo the most energy and endurance. Some suggestive remains aro mado by Mr. Bernard Dyer, the analytical chemist, on tho use of artificial manures in a Homo trade annual. In stating that it is advantageous to use artificial manure for curtain crops even when farmyard manure is applied, ho says : — " We cannot have a batter instance of this than in tho familiar caise of Ihu. turnip crop. Even when a. good dressing of <]un;s is used, tho experience of most fAimoM shows that a dressing of sui'.trphospates cr hone manure adds very mfvteiially In the weight of tho crop; for while the di.ng supplies everything else needed for the turnip oiop, it fails generally to yield a suffic'ently concentrated and abundant suppljof quickly available phosphoric acid to advance the plant rapidly in its early growth. Jf wo use enough dung to roudur artiQcinl phosphates si;p3lfluous, we add ucrs uitrcgtn and potash than we need." Theie is muoh forco in this statement. Aga;n Mr. Dyer alludes to the curious preference of many fanners for a manure that will "last for roar?," as, for example, when inch bones are preferred to lino bonomoal, on the ground that " you would find the pieces years aftei wards when you were ploughing." It (lid not slrike the man who actually said this thai theao piecos represented moTioy lying idle and unproductive. The more speodily a manure acts tho more profitable it is to use at a Riven price. But buoU <ruicfcactiug manures, Sir. Dyer remarks, often last, in ouesonse— in their affects. That Is to say, in tho production of more straw, which, in turn, becomes manure, and in tho incroaso of the fibres and topa of root crops, which decay and fertilise the sci). The epoch-marking article on " The Sources of the Nitrogen of our Leguminous Crops," by Sir John Lawes aud Dr. Gilbert, has (says the I.estte Mercury) been reprinted in pamphlet form from the Uoyal Agricultural Society's Journal. It is certainly remarkable that science should only now bo giving clear reasons for what experience taughtover 2 .000 years age. As the authors point out, the Romans recognised the fact that the occasional growth of leguminous crops increased the yield of gramineous crops with which they were alternated, and that the effect was equivalent to the application of mantue. Thus, Varro says that " certain things aro to bo sown, not with the hope of any immediate profit bsinp derived from them, but with a view to the following year, because, being ploughed in aud left in the ground, they render tho soil more fruitful." For this purpose the Romans used lupiuß, beans, vetches, and other legumes. Modern rotations of cropping h»ve been based more or less upon such experience, although the leguminous crops have usually been fed off or mown, and not ploughed in, a consideiable gain of nitrogen being still obtained by the soil. But a great deal mora might ba dono to enrich the land from the boundless supplies of nitrogen ia the atmosphere, if leguminous crops were grown to a large extent instead of root crops, which ex. haunt the soil of its most important plant food. For example, a bean crop fed off in a green state, when in pod, allords an immense quantity of nutritious food, as the few who have tried it for fattening sheep will testify. Boots are now commonly used in excess for stock, and a large proportion of tha losses among cattle aud Bheep ma; ba attributed to such excess. Enough roots might be grown on half the acrcago now devoted to them if tho heaviest possible crops were forced on a small aroa. Tho hoavy cost of hoeing, pulling, and carting roots would thus be greatly diminished, aud, heavily manured, tha roots would not exhaust the soil, while more land could ba fertilised by the growth of nitrogen-acoumulating crops. Haw often do wo find that a certain article is uaed to excess, and then, through the harm done by such extravagant ~ use, it is neglected altogether, and deemed valueless for the purpose ? It shows the trutli of the old saying, "extremes meet." In regard to agriculture this remark applies, perhaps, more pointedly to the use of lime ihou to anything olse. Many year 3 ago when' limo was the only commercial fertiliser which tho farmer could purchase, he used it too freely, for ho diil not then know that it was a manure, or a substitute for it, but only an addition, which should be used occasionally. Even en chalk rock the upper soil has been found at times almost destitute of lime. In land whero limo is almost absent tho green crops ar« subject to diseaso, and the root crops often f±ii completely, even if they hare been wcUninnured, Up to a certain stage under euch conditions grain and root 3 thrive well, but when it becomes time for them to mature they fall oil' miserably. Theao failures nrs not nucommon on poor sandy soils, and the cure is a good dressing of limo, and then dung or artificial manure maybe used to advantage. The late Dr. Voolcker said : — v The most liberal applications of farmyard manure of the best quality never produce so beneficial and lasting an effect on poor sandy soils us when they have been previously marled or limed." We know that fresh lime mixed with sand makes mortar, and it, thereforo, appears probable that in mixing with the saud it some what alters the porous nature of the soil, and thus prevents the manure frcm being washed out of these poor light soils, which is their general characteristic. This may account for the manum being found lasting, and the application of a needed constituent of_ the soil would also have tha effect of inorehsiug the yiold. On clay soils lime would have an opposite effect, but still an equally necesaaiy one. What there is needed is to relieve it of ita adhesive character, and lime ia a prime a«;ent to effect this result. A foreign professor of chemistry says: — "Let any clay bo worked into a. phistic mii6B with water and then diicd ; the result will be a mass of almost stony hiirdnoas ; but add to some of tho same paste half per cent, of caustic lime, aud a diminution of plasticity will bo obvious at once, even iv tho wet condition, and on drying the mass will failjnto a pilo of crumbs at a mere touch." This is a very striking and yet simple way of Bhowing how by liming clayey soils will become mellower, ami of better tilth, and it ia found by experience that this lightening influence lastß for yeais. On peaty soil tho limo is very beneficial iv hastening the decomposition of tho orgnuic matter, and making it more availatlo for the use of the plant. It is this tendency which probably gavo v'.ee to tho old proverb, " Lime enriches the father but boggarß the son." Certainly a too frequent use of it would have that effect, for by making organic matter available for tho plant it would gradually reduce it if no manure was applied to supply the deficiency, and in time tho land \vou!d be "worn out." Still at tim s thero is in paaty soil far too much vegetable matter, which nei.'ds decajiiig in order to feed the crop?, and Ihia limes does effectually, and al*o when heavy green crops have be.:ii ploughed in, it is useful to promoto fermentation, Limo corrocta acidity in tlm soil, and as it destroys plants which crow in bogs, it is inforud that it neutralises tho chemical substances which they contain, and allows the ordnniy grasses, which may not contain them, to ilour.^h. Theso aro some of tho uses of lime, nnd while its benefits do not show it as fit to tnl:o the placo of manure, they yet prove it to be a valuable addition for special purposes as occasion may require. Teat it should bo altogether ueglected is just as bad policy a>i to use it for nlmost every crop instead of manure, which it should not displace under any ciicuinstaiici's.