The Northern Advocate “NORTHLAND FIRST” Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1942. Compost Heap Or Rubbish Tip?

Northern Advocate, 17 December 1942, Page 4

The Northern Advocate “NORTHLAND FIRST” Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1942. Compost Heap Or Rubbish Tip?

THERE is a common saying, and it is a true one, that the best part of much of the foodstuffs prepared in the kitchen is often put clown the sink. This applies particularly to vegetables, the juices of which, constituting the essence of the vitamin content, are thrown away. This is very frequently done because of the housewife’s desire that the food served up at table shall be attractive in appearance, irrespective of whether it is thereby robbed of some of its nutritiveness. It is evident that the moral of this waste of essentials has not been learned by our worthy borough councillors, who, for the sake of making backyards appear tidily attractive, have encouraged householders to destroy refuse which, if properly treated, would make invaluable fertiliser. The virtues of the compost heap cannot be over-estimated. It constitutes a means whereby there may be returned to mother earth the essential properties that have been used in the production of vegetables, grass and all the other pioducts of the soil. Readers of the weekly gardening notes in the “Northern Advocate” have been urged, year in and year out, for the past two decades, to make the utmost use of compost. The evolution of compost requires that every particle of green stuff and house refuse shall be placed on a heap and intermixed with layers of animal manure if such is obtainable,. earth and lime. The effect of decomposition brought about by time is to produce a material which, when dug into the soil, is an energiser without equal. This fact has been recognised from the earliest days of agriculture. The Chinese, for instance, have proved,' over a period of thousands of years, that soil, often very poor, may be made to produce vegetables for centuries without the exhaustion caused by failure to return to the ground at least some of the virtue extracted from it

It is to be feared that this lesson has not been taken to heart by many people in New Zealand, who, because comparatively virgin soil produced luxuriously, despite denial of the feeding which Chinese and other ancient agriculturists have proved to be absolutely necessary, imagined they would be able indefinitely to get without giving. In many instances the folly of this short-sighted policy is already evident. To it may be traced, in conjunction with the criminal conduct of denuding high lands of their natural clothing of trees and vegetation, a great deal of the soil erosion which is taking place in New Zealand every year. Soil is irreplaceable, and the incalculable quantities which have been carried to sea have made many districts infinitely poorer than appears on the surface at the present time; the full measure of the loss will become increasingly apparent unless drastic steps are taken to prevent erosion. While the question of soil erosion in its widest sense may not be intimately associated with the exhaustion of vegetable gardens through starvation, it nevertheless comes within the category of caution essential to the preservation of mother earth’s. productivity. There is strong reason why householders should be encouraged to make the most of any ground of which they may be possessed. The war has proved the necessity for this. With the coming of peace, which it is to be prayed will not be long delayed, there will remain need for the domestic production of vegetables, as well as the flowers which beautify and adorn the garden and home. Only by the feeding of the ground, by reciprocating to some extent the gifts made by nature, can fertility of the soil be preserved. A large number of people, of course, are well aware of these things, and put into practice all that is represented by the compost heap and the digging of greenstuff into the earth, but, judging by the quantity of vegetation of all kinds recently displayed on footpaths in readiness for conveyance to the borough rubbish tip, many Whangarei citizens are still unaware that they are throwing away that which they should jealously preserve. What do our worthy borough councillors have to say about it?