FARMERS’ COLUMN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 899, 11 July 1879, Page 3

FARMERS’ COLUMN.

At the special request of a number of farmers, we purpose from this time devoting a column to rural topics. The article this w-eek is from the Australasian, on THE TREATMENT OF STUBBLE LAND SELECTION OF SEED, SOWING WHEAT, &C. The following paper was read by J. L. Thompson, of the Experimental Farm, at the monthly meeting of the Moira Agricultural Society held recently : - Mr Chairman and Gentlemen:—l trust you will bear with rne while I read to you my experience with regard to the preparing land for a wheat crop, the selection of seed, sowing, &c. I am certainly more accus turned to the plough than the platform; but I was one of the first to propose to our worthy Secretary that papers of this description should be read and discussed from time to time by practical men for the diffusion of useful knowledge, and I trust mine may be of some benefit to the more inexperienced of our farmers. As my experience has been chiefly with stiff clay soils, and as a good portion of the land in this neighborhood is of that description, 1 will confine my remarks more particularly to clayey soils. To commence—We will suppose we have a paddock of 100 acres, from which a wheat crop has just been removed. The first suggestion I should make is to put on a Hock of sheep. ’They will pick up all heads that have been left, wild oats, &c. Sheep are much to he preferred to cattle for this purpose. They eat up weeds much cleaner and do not consolidate the laud so much as cattle, but the latter may be used if sheep are not procurable. A few hundred sheen will soon perform all that is required of them, and the next operation is to go over the land with a scarifier. E iwards’s is the best I have ever used. IE you have no implement of tins description, a set of harrows would he the next best tiling to use. The advantage of this operation is manifold ). You have, I daresay, observed during harvest that the land is quite loose, but if you leave it untouched until the end of March it will be almost impenetrable. 2. By thus breaking the surface immediately after harvest, it will prevent the land from acquiring that hard baked state so general in clayey soils. 3. And, most important of all, by scarifying the laud early, if fortunate enough to get a shower shortly after, the whole of the seeds left will germinate, and can again be eaten off with the sheep before ploughing, as the scarifying will have left the land so that this operation can be proceeded with at any time, no matter how dry. Land ploughed and worked dry will yield a much better crop than that worked wet, and the ploughing of the land in January and exposing it to the sun during the throe best months of the year for that purpose, will be half as beneficial as letting it lie in fallow for a season. We must in these Colonies take advantage of the scorching rays of Old Sol, to sweeten the land and destroy all undesirable vegetation. Tuis, as most of you are aware, is equivalent to the action of the frost, etc., of the winter months in the old country. Farmers should do their very utmost to guard against the introduction and spread of wild oats. If any are sown or left iu the ground at all, you may rely on a good return. The ploughing should be completed by the end of March, and the interval between that period and the time of commencing sowing (which should, in my opinion, if the weather be favourable, be proceeded with about the 20th of April) should be occupied iu getting the seed-bed ready. This very important work should always be done in dry weather. I am aware that most persons simply sow the seed on the rough ploughed land, and harrow it in. l My system requires a little more horse labour, but I am confident it will remunerate the farmer tenfold for any extras in that respect. After ploughing I give the land a turn with the harrows, and if very rough and lumpy I employ a spiked roller. This any one can procure at a very cheap rate—indeed, a farmer could make it himself. All that is required is a good sound log, say Sft long by 2ift in diameter. Iu it holes are bored wiiha Jin augur, first drafting off the roller, so that two pegs will not follow each other, i.e., in the style of brickwork in a building, the distance apart being 4m each way. The pegs are 5m long, and are driven 2in in the wood, thus leaving 3in out. They require no sharpening, only cutting the length from a Jin rod of iron, and before driving in dip them in spirits of salt. This will cause them to rust into the log, and I will guarantee they will never get loose. I have used an implement such as I have tried to describe for the last six seasons, and it is none the worse for wear now. One turn of it on rough lumpy land is much better than two or three borrowings and the same number of rollings with the ordinary implements, and will leave a seed-bed that cannot be surpassed. I have used heavy, expensive, imported clod-crushers, requiring a team of bullocks to draw them, whereas three ordinary horses will pull the other implement quite easily all day, and do far better execution, and also much more speedily. The lumps cannot escape the spikes, and the laud will break up with the

harrows, he., afterwards, in a way that will astonish and delight you. I sow the seed after the roller, and scarify it in about the depth of 2Jiu. It has been proved by experiment that most of the seeds germinate at that depth; The ordinary harrowin'' system on the rough land is not at all to be recommended, some of the seeds behind the furrows are covered sometimes a depth of six.iui’hes, while some of them remain uncovered, and consequently all perish. (To be continued.) , ■