Hawke's Bay Herald SATURDaY, JULY 10, 1897.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10657, 10 July 1897, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald SATURDaY, JULY 10, 1897.

I WHAT DO WE EXPORT ? ' Now and then farmers of a philosophical i tarn of mlud dlscws In a more or lees ', aoidemlo fashion the problem of how ( maoh of the fertility of the soli we export) i Id the shape of agricultural and pastoral ' piodnoe. The conclusion arrived at nine time* ont of ten Is that while the export of oereali means the export of much , fertilising material, wool and meat are produced at little or no' coat to the soil. ■ No do abb this la the oaae, value for value, \ That la to say thote W more exhaustion of the soil In producing £1 worth of wheat than £1 worth of wool or mutton. Bat taking onr ixports as they stand wool U the mebt exhaustive orop. Mr George I Grey, leoturer on ohemlatry at the Lin- • ooln Agrlonltnral College, dealt with this question In a paper read at the Canterbury Agricultural and Pabloi ral Soolety's winter show. He based his calculations on the exports for 1895, The Glares given mast be considered to be only approximate, In consequence ol the ; want of anilident dabs, and from the taot that only the more Important exports have been considered. With frozsn meat the whole is calculated as innbbon, wool la assumed to be unwashed, malt is calculated with barley, and pea* with baans. The oalcalatiom for frozsn meat are based on the oompasitlon of the dreßied oarcaße, as shown by Messrs Lawes and Gilbert, disregarding head, offil, &o. Those for wool and grain are based on the compos! tlon as shown by <Varlngton. The numbers given are probably balow the truth, ntlll they are sufficiently near to give a , fair Idea of the loss which onr New Zsa- \ land soils sustain by the exportation of agricultural prodnos.

Soiuo of these elements are returned to the mil in a greater or less degree by natural processes, Thus In a limeatone country the decomposition of lime la probably greater than that which could be taken oat of it by ordinary grazing. Then ruin water has a fertilising influence, though that) varies very mnoh, It contains dissolved fertilising matter. From Investigations carried out at Lincoln (Canterbury) daring the yean JBBi to IS3B it was found that the coll received annually per acre an average of 179; bof dissolved matters— 6o 51b consisting of ohlorlne, eqalvalent to Dearly 1001 boi common salt; 15! bof aulpbnrlo BDhydtlde, equivalent to 20Jlb of sodlo mlphate, and a little over 21b cf nitrogen, one half of whloh belrjg in the form of nitrates, and the remainder existing In nearly equal parts as ammonium oom> pounds and nitrogenous organio matter. The remits differ from those obtained by Means L&wee and Gilbert, at Rotham■ted (England) ; the nitrogen being only about one half that received at Rothamsted; the anlphurlo anhydride is also less, while the ohloilne Is four times as great. The defiolenoy of nitrogen and sulphuric anhydride in the New ; Zaaland rain Is probably due to the less populated nature of the country, while ( the excess of ohlorlne is due to the j position of Llnooln with regard to the I aea. The nitrogen gained by the soil ( from rain is about equivalent to that con- £ talned Id about two bushels of wheat. \ On the whole, then, the popular conola- t •ion that grazing does not materially exhaust the fertility of the soil is about p oorrect. Of aourse pastures may dete- v riorate, from overatooklog, the dying out a of giaaaes, droagbt, or other causes. Bub ft that does not necessarily imply a loss g oi the Inherent tetUWly ot the *oU, wh\oh j only requires to be re-ploughed and re- c sown to restate Uto lt» original oarrylng c oapaolty, c

Phosphoric Nltrojjon. Aotd, Potash. JLlmo, Tons. Tons. Ton 3 , Tors FrozonMeat 1015 731 91 907 Wool /_ 3781 fit 2072 S3 Grain .- 107J 330 275 4r Totals _ 5571 7205 2138 100 C