WORKING THE SOIL.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3441, 10 March 1932, Page 2

WORKING THE SOIL.

SCIENCE OF CULTIVATION. The Physics Department of the ’Rothamsted Experimental Station is endeavouring to work out a science of cultivation, and it is proceeding in two ways. Experiments are made in the field to try and discover by dynamometer and other tests what cultivation does to the soil, and to see what other methods have the same effect. Other studies are made in the laboratory to explain the field measurements and observations, and to work out the physical properties of the soil, especially those related to cultivation such as stickiness, friction, plasticity and permeability; to discover also what is meant by tilth and crumb structure.

- The physical properties under investigation for the purpose of explaining tilth and crumb structure include the plasticity of the soil, the electrical conductivity and dielectric constants of soil suspensions, the specific gravity in the crumb and powdered states before and after pumping out all air. Cultivation with a rotary implement, which makes a seed-bed in one operation, has for the past five years been compared with the normal cultivation which requires two or three processes to do the same thing. The implement has consistently given a better seed-bed, so that there has always been better germination and early growth; more plants, and on wheat more tillers. This, however, has applied to the weeds as well as the sown crops, and the plots prepared with the implement have always been much the same as with the ordinary cultivation, the advantage of the early growth not having been maintained—perhaps the result of the weed growth. The implement appears to be admirable for inducing germination of weeds and cleaning land.

The effect of sheep folding on light land has been studied Woburn. The compact of light soil obtained by sheep is different from that given by implements. It extends to a greater depth and it lasts longer. The top three inches of the soil is mainly affected. It gives also a coarser tilth.