HEAVY CROPS.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19212, 19 January 1928, Page 7

HEAVY CROPS.

TO THE EDITOR 07 THE PRESS. Sir, —lii The Phess to-day appears an article: "Wheat Growing—Revolutionary Discovery Claimed." It is stated the discovery is introduced into England from China through Germany, and all one has to do is to grow plants in a nice seed-bed and then plant them out in the corn land by the aid of machinery. The writer has seen largo areas of rice planted the way mentioned, but not by machinery, and where the nine-tenths of the labour is saved I do not know. The natives out in the East plant crops as above to save wasting seed and also because the land in which the crop is planted is too wet to do otherwise. The number of bushels that can be produced per acre depends on, first, the thorough deep working of the land, second, on the amount of a well-balanced manure and humUs in the soil. But the fertiliser should be broadcasted on the land before the seed is sown and no* drilled in with the crop. Under the above treatment there is no reason why a 100 bushel crop cannot be. produced. It may interest some of your readers to know how the large crops are produced in China. Malay States, Java, etc. Land is chosen that can be irrigated. A large amount of grass, shrubs, etc., is encouraged to grow on the land, and then the flood waters are turned on. The isore silt the better. When the flood water is soaked in -well and 6 inches or so is still lying about on the surface water buffaloes are driven over the land until the whole of the grass, shrubs, etc., are- down under. By that time the buffaloes are hard put to get along. The natives then go with their bundles of young rice plants, starting at one end of the prepared land, and start planting working backwards. I have seen men, women, and children at this job up to their thighs in mud. They grow very heavy crops, but. I am afraid the white person would object to the planting job. I saw land in the centre of the widest part of the Malay Peninsula where Chinese had grown rice after this manner over 200 years. The flood water every year was made use of. Here we let it flow out to sea_ and lose the valuable soil-building silt. — Yours, etc., GEORGE LEE. Templeton, January 17.