Farms Without Soil

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 4, 6 January 1937, Page 2

Farms Without Soil

ONE CROP OF FODDER A DAY Two Englishmen, Messrs A. HastingsThomas and V. C. Dashwood, after four and a-half years’ research, have discovered a method of producing cattle fodder without soil, says the Sunday Express, London. The discovery may revolutionise farming practice. Twenty centres have been opened throughout the country under the supervision of county council agricultural experts to demonstrate the simplicity of the new method of plant culture to farmers. The inventors claim that under their scheme, which they call “cabinet culture,” one acre of floor space is equal to 1,760 acres of grass land; sixpennyworth of seed will grow 200 hundredweight of green fodder; one crop of fodder can be produced per day instead of one per year; a farmer feeding intensively cultivated corn instead of hay and grass to his livestock will save I2s (id on every pig brought to bacon weight, £1 on every bullock, and from 3 to 4 per cent, on milk production; and all animals will be in better condition because they will be eating young, fresh food instead of old or dried grass which has been weakened of its vitamins. The technique used was demonstrated recently iu London. The inside of the cabinet contains rows of trays, each one with corn in a different stage of growth. To-day’s tray holds seed. Yesterday’s shows the white shoots. The shoots are larger and larger up to the tenth day, when the fodder is full grown and ready to be taken out and eaten. There is no soil. On top of tie cabinet is a tank full of water containing a small proportion of a chemical solution. The chemicals are those of which the soil consists. Enough solution to last an average farmer for a month costs 18s. In the bottom of the tank are small holes. F,or three minutes every 24 hours a tap is .turned on and the tank drops “rain” on to the top layer CS trays. By the tenth day the growth can be lifted out of the tray like a grass-grown mat. The animal eats every scrap of it, and the tray is left perfectly clean. There is no earth or dirt of any kind in the whole process. Animals fed on these intensive crops can be kept in yards or barns, owing to the high digestibility of it.