BLUE LUPINS FOR GREEN MANURING.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19624, 21 May 1929, Page 11

BLUE LUPINS FOR GREEN MANURING.

TO TBT. EOITO3 CV THE PEESS. Sir—As the season for top-dressing, and wheat-sowing is now upon us, with its resultant use of vast quantities of expensive artificial fertiliser, I wi,h to bring before the notice of those readers of your paper engaged in famine the quite remarkable results that mav be-obtained from the ploughing in of blue lupins as green manure. Some time ago a letter written by Mr R 0 Dixon appeared m your paper, and in this be gave the results that the growing of a crop of lupins m the previous-vear had had on the crop of oats in the following year. There was a very large difference both in. t-ne quantitv of-straw and oats in'favour of the ••rrouud that had grown the lupins. b The main reason of this letter is to point out the results that were obtained m the crop of wheat that was crown on this same piece of ground this season. Of the 3.6 acres in lupins three seasons ago, only two were sown, in Wheat this season, the balance being taken up by. potatoes and a vegetable garden. The whole blr-ck of wheat, 30 acres, received ordinary cultivation and one hundredweight of super was applied per acre all over the paddock; yet right from the time" when the wheat' was six inches in height a difference was distinctly noticeable in the appearance and height of the crop growing on the. above-mentioned two acres. Where the lupins had grown three seasons ago tfao wheat was thicker, more vigorous, and much darker green in colour than the adjoining crop. When threshed out th© yield of wheat on the two acres where the lupins had been was 50 bushels p«£ acre, and that on two acres measures

out adjoining the lupin plot and of exactly similar class of soil was only 40 bushels per acre, thus giving us 10 bushels per acre extra for the second white crop in succession after the crop of lupins which, however, were grown for seed only and were not ploughed in. I am sure that had they beet, ploughed in while green the dinerenct, mentioned above would have been very much greater. The point that I wish to stress is this that, unlike artificial manures, which must be applied every year and which have little or no effect on the second crop after application, the effect of the blue lupins is very marked for several years. Humus and nitrogen are very necessary to aw types or soils and to apply these artificially in sufficient quantities is a very expensive business. Blue lupins will do this for the farmer just for the cost of his growing his own seed. Not only is the yield of successive crops very much increased, but the condition of the soil, i.e., humus content, temperature, moisture content, aeration, etc, is vastly improved for years to come. The farmers of New Zealand are spending hundreds of thousands of pounds every year in artificial fertiliser, much of which can be saved if it was realised that a very large part of it indeed can be grown and produce* on the farm itself. It is poor polics: ; and bad business to pay out hard cash for what can be grown on the farm, especially when by doing so the gross returns ' are very largely increased and the condition of the soil improved for years to come. : Now there are large areas of pool shingle iand in Canterbury, and. 1 firmly believe that blue lupins are going to be the salvation of thesfc iands and that wheat-growing will be> a possible and profitable business on a very fair percentage of them. Bluo lupins are also going to help us to guarantee the turnip crop, which, after all, is the mainstav of the sheep during the winter. The turnip crop is a most risky one on the light land with a, fairlv low rainfall, and no effort should be spared to make such a crop a certainty year after year; blue lupins, I feel sure, are going to make this possible and will also develop into paying propositions many of the holdings of light land which at present afford only a bare living for their owners, and which also, in a great many cases, are the ruin of evrryone whs takes them up. —Yours, etc.. M. S. BOWER. Swannanoa, May 20th.