WANTED: A SUBSTITUTE FOR RAIN.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 6, 8 January 1908, Page 5

WANTED: A SUBSTITUTE FOR RAIN.

CAtt WE FARM WITHOUT THE

SHOWERS?

It is time that our farmers shook off their dependence on the Cmm* ot the Weather, and farmed without him. In the cities, the inhabitants, who are at times very thirsty creatures, can, at a pinch, withstand a drought siege of twelve; months' duration. But a drought of a month sets the dwellers on the farms wringing their hands. This ought not to be. We need to probe much deeper into the mysteries of moisture supply ■; and. strengthen the powers of our soils to defy the outer elements and carry laughing crops in the driest of seasons. A great a<|vance A in. this direction was made by the man who discovered that loose tilth on, the surface r prevents evaporation. That is probably the most important eye?, made for those crops that can be cultivated during their growth., But that dis*cbvery was made many, many years ago. The art of surface stirring is said to be better practised among the Chinese than it is among us, and everything a Chinaman does is supposed to have Deen done by his ancestors before him for many generations. The practice has been known long enough among ourselves, for us to have changed the.term "manoeuvre (to hard work) into " manure,' 5 and then also to change the meaning of ■ the word too. Whether we call the j practice manoeuvring or manuring or surface cultivation or dry. farming— ] which -some American writers would I almost have us regard as something] quite new—the practice is as old as the hills., Arid we have made very j little advance since. Perhaps the j next-best achievement is the discovery j of the value of deep drainage as a I drought-resistant equipment. We have learned the deep" drainage lesson so well that it is very rare now to meet a farmer who has any discussable doubts on the point left in his mmd. The only question; that a farmer now reserves for animadversion is ■..Whether, his particular block can be conveniently drained and whether it, is worth the cost. The value of deep drainage as a drought resistor does not depend much on the infinitesimal drop ot moisture that the drain itself can drink in from the atmosphere, because the surface measurement of the sides of a drain is very small m comparison with the area of the land it benefits. The power for good ot a drain depends much more on its knack of drawing the roots of plants 'down deep. Drainage deepens and aerates land more than ploughing does. The plough can never aerate a swamp. But a drain does it comipletely. The way in which drains act is now generally well understood. A deep drain enables the surplus winter irain to soak, quickly through the soil and escape. After the rain, there follows the air, and the soil becomes sweetened and slightly ' decomposed. Swamp poisons are broken up and eliminated, and the soil organisms that render some of the plant foods digestible, descend also, and multiply. Overhead,.the farmer's seeds germinate; their rootlets as by^ Nature taught, point downwards, and, receiving no poison to corrode their tips and check their career, make swift descent to the drainage level. Peep down also the little horizontal fibres stlread out, finding the country there congenial. Some rootlets travel also near the surface, just as do those of the seeds on undrained land —but not all of them. .And when the drought comes and dries up the uppermost roots, ruining the crop of the undrained fields the plants where the drains exist fall back on their deep roots and survive for a heavy harvest. Apart from moisture deep roots; enjoy a less fitful temperature. To be scorched to-day arid chilled to-night is not the ideai condition for roots, and from; many points of view, deep draining is worth lots of money. Why is drainage not more prevalent? It is no doubt chiefly because, of cost, or because of a vague fear of: cost. Yet plough-draining is extra-; ordinarily cheap. Contractors perform the work at a price per mile, which sometimes reckons up at only a few shillings per acre. And as the plough; itself is expensive, and it needs about; ten or twelve horses or, a steam engine to draw- it, the contract system is the one usually favoured. Draini ploughing possesses the advantages or, tile-draining without the cost of opening trenches, without the cost of pipes, and without the litter; and it is effectual for many years. The dram of a drain-plough is also said to possess this further extraordinary virtue, that it acts like a syphon, so that a slight dip in the alignment here and there does no harm. In a clover paddock, where the roots will descend to a depth greater than the height of the stems, in orchards where the tree roots want to 'burrow down to a greater distance than the branches rise in the air, and in fields of all crops where a steady supply of moisture is desired throughout the season, drain-ploughing will pay. On the whole, surface cultivation, where possible, and drain-ploughing where practicable, have already begun to make us independent of the derk of the Weather, and give us a substitute for rain.—The Dominion.