APPLICATION- OF CHEMISTRY TO AGRICULTURE.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 46, 27 May 1875, Page 3

APPLICATION OF CHEMISTRY TO AGRICULTURE.

Manure may be applied to land where it would never act as a fertiliser, as in the case pf; naturally wet lands. The plants being know to derive many of their constituents from the atmosphere., and its action ,on the soil, it was reasonable to, , suppose that the- soil would be improved by being- broken up and pulverised, so as to allow the atmospheric gases to penetrate the mass, and the roots of the crops to penetrate the soil in search for nourishment. To do this a variety of implements were, required to meet the. demand. But wet soil could not yet be thus treated, and drianage" then became necessary ; and this, one of the most important of the mechanical means of improving- the soil, was found to bring an immense amount of advantages with it, so much so that a first rate authority says " that the neglect of drainage is the true cause of most of the bad farming to be seen." ■ The soil once drained auxiliary operations were easily and usefully applied. Under the old system the preparation of the land was confined to a mere scraping- of its surface; but with draining, and a knowledge of the vast benefits derivable from allowing the air to penetrate the soil for a great distance beneath its surface, came sub-soiling and deep culture. These processes, difficult to be carried out by horse power, brought steam cultivation. This convenient power was now called into requisition to cut the straw, slice the turnips, and bruise the corn and oilcake, which served as food for the cattle j this in its course brought the new system of housing and feeding, and instead of the littered and exposed farm-yard of the old system, stalls arid yards properly sheltered and supplied with all facilities for feeding and economising manure were provided. Chemistry and geology next offered their aid to agriculture. The latter pointed out the different species of soils and subsoils; how they were formed, and in what districts they were most likely to be met with ; and explained many of the diversities which sometimes puzzled the farmer to account for. The former subjected the soils to strict examination, traced their constituents, and showed their influence upon vegetation. The relation of the soil to the plant was next examined, and the manner in which the food was used to built up the plant. Thus Liebig showed that in the different- species of plants the chemical elements of which they are composed differed in proportion"; and that to these different proportions the varieties of vegetables owed their distinctive peculiarites. From these facts, he deduced the important theory, that the main art of culture . was to supply to those vegetables tbe elements which were necessary to their growth and productive qualities. Hence he opened up a wide field for the exercise of research and. experiments in connection with manures, resulting in the application of a large number of substances, the composition of which had fer its aim the giving to the laud the elements which the special plants grown upon it took from if. Those became known as " special or articial manures." The help of chemistry and physiology were4)rou)>ht to bear upon the feeding and fattening of cattle and shoep — both important departments of farming. Thus the processes by which substances contained in the food were assimilated and converted into the substances of the animal, the functions of the animal, its respviative and digestive processes, and how the food aided these, were all investigated ; and led to inquiries into the relative value of different foods for feeding and fattening stock, and the discovery of improved modes by which these foods could be most economically prepared and administered to them. We may sum up our rapid review of the progress of agriculture in Britain by quoting the suggestive remarks of a well-known writer in the • Quarterly Review ' : — " The spirit," says this writer, " of the old agriculture and the new are diametrically opposite — that of the old was to be stationary, that of tbe new is progress. When Youngmade his tour through the east of England in 1771, he remarks, as a peculiarity, that the turnip-cabbage of a Mr Reynolds, which had a special superiority, was gradually adopted by his neighbors — a circumstance, he adds, that would not happen in many countries. His works are, in fact, a. narrative of individual enterprise and general stupidity. AMr Cooper, who went into Dorsetshire from Norfolk, could only get his turnips hoed, by working himself, year after year, with his laborers, and refusing to be tired out by tbeir deliberate awkwardness, for the purpose of defeating his design." After he had continued the practice for twenty years, and all the surrounding farmers bad witnessed the vast benefits to be derived from it, not a single one of them, had begun to imitate him. Mr Cooper, with two horses abreast and no. driver, ploughed an acre of laud when his neighbors, with four horses and a driver, ploughed only three-quarters of an acre. Yet, not a laborer, would touch his unclean implement, as they deemed to think it, and no farmer would adopt his system of ploughing. No longer ago than 1835, Sir Robert Peel presented a farmers' club at Tarn worth

with twd'irori ploughs of the " beTt^ccm--structipn. - On Ms riext ; visit; the : old ploughs,- 1 bpards^ fwerey vaa^aint at work; • d- Sir," said a member;> of^the club; ; " we .tried the iroD, and we be all of one mind that they made the weed's grow," On Yioung -recommending- -the Dorsetshire J farmers j:Q_;fol_d their ewes in winter, they treated the idea with contempt ; and on pressing them for. their reasons, they replied that in rushing, out of /the fold the lambs would be trodden down, and they would not he able to find their dams, though certainly, says Young,. a. lamb in Dorsetshire has as much sense as a lamb elsewhere. Of two neigh- 1 boring counties, one was sometimes- a century behind another. A lazy. desire to creep with sluggish monotony along an established path,- arid feeling impatient at being pushed into a new track, helped to maintain hereditary prejudices^ and tenants made all sorts j of excuses for not doing -what -was plainly advantageous to their interests, because they preferred present sloth to future profit. But once aroused and put in motion the gainin interest, as well as in pocket, was- felt to be great, -and he who had profited by one innovation, was ready to cry another ; thus the wane of agricultural progress has acquired, irresistible might, and they" must mount it, or it will sweep them away. The I best thing that can be done for these j lazzards in the race is to get them to I read the agricultural journals, to see what is being, done, and the advantages of improvement,, to induce 'them to replenish their' worn-out' implements, and to visit the annual shows — to throw them, in short, in the way of seeing the products of. advanced husbandry, and of hearing the ideas of enlightened cultivators. , By some or all of these means, they may be put upon the high road to improvement; and wlien they have gone an inch thero is little fear they will refuse to go the ell.