RENOVATION OF DETERIORATED VOLCANIC LAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6816, 21 September 1883, Page 3

RENOVATION OF DETERIORATED VOLCANIC LAND.

In the lifetime of the 2\ew Zealand Agricultural Society, of Otahuhu, will bo found recorded in the minute-book, and duly reported in the columns' of the I'rafS of that day, that I repeatedly and pertinaciously brought the necessity Of the Society moving: lo organise an "experimental farm" for the. trial of different cultivations, provii.g of. artificial fertilisers, experimenting upon seedf, plains, &'c., together with the .appointment Of a practical analyst, who wo™ Id. bo able to i inform farmers what mauurei wuuld imI prove and keep up the fertility of the soils. But theD, as liow, farmers were aijat.lqtie to j. their Own. ci-operativ-.-. mteiesu," and time after time the 1 people '.ver■: put i'uto toe management, and apy energy and vitality seemed to. ou devoted to the. merely getting up of the cattle shows. Of coarse, ; the Society died of inanition, aad the Auckland Pastoral As?oc-a!ion arose from its ashes, and is progressing simply on. the old line, with cattle show.?,. and nothing mote. Agriculture add. the v»auts of the farming community are being quietly au l practically ignored, With the exception that uuw and then some little action may be 'Observed' of a spasmodic character only. iet the fact stares us in. the face that the volcanic land in the neighbourhood of Auckland does cot produce nearly so a'onndaut y as it did twenty years ago. Tfk-n, prolific crops of potatoes was the rule; ripe, cho;ce Quality of beef and unsurpassed mutton Were the everyday produce from all grassed lands. Look at the farms now—full of weeclsj stunted grass, limited hay crops, little beef, and leas mutton, with dilapidated fences as a framing to. the actual picture. The question arises, Why is. it t.hus ? I aaswer not. but leave the question open. In the meantime; for general information, 1 have i>een. making periodical, trials ;o find out what :he Volcanic soil required to bring it back to. its pristine state. The district of Mangere baa been the locality of iiiy limited opc:ations,. and I think tihat district is. a fair sample of the surrounding volciilic country. My experiments refer tolely to potatoes and grass quality and quantity the desideratum sought for. I hav-j tried four diff rent sorts of bonedust, boueS, and boneflour without appieiiablc result ; that is, tee result not paying for the extra expense. Bell's bopednst I found the .best. Blood manure did nothing. StOck-y.ird manure, used as a top-dressing, aud ploughed in, proved to some extent beaefieivi, but being used in. its green state I found it productive of worms and weeds. To be effectual, it Should be made, .into a two-year'a-old cornpost, and, better, sprinkled with sulphuric acid to kill vegetation of weeds. The using of bonedust deteriorated the quality .of potatoes, and. created worms and insects, and grass benefitted very Hfct'e by the application of bonedust. Lately, I have had a communication from Mr. iJobert Dick, technical chemist, ijorth Canterbury. giving him a full description of the working aud nature of the latjd, with a view of obtaining a correct system of renovation, J subjoin his remarks and opinion, deeming it of sufficient importance to find a p)aee in your agricultural pages* He says la*«»m your description of soil, we understand it to be such aa is formed by the disintegration of basaltic rock and lava, contEininsj felspar, mica, &c., and of a dark chocolate colour. We have carefully considered all your points named, and would, in the first place deprecate the us<? of bouedust (except oil very light, samly soils) as a manure for apy crop. It is practically ius.lubl-j in water, and its decomp-vbill oil &y tnt? cht:uiical forces present in the soil is. necessarily very slow, averaging from lour to sevtn years, and 1 , ii rough ground, even lo ten years. The principal valuable constituent of bonedust is the of Unit., whi'jh alio constitu.es twenty per cent, of the asb, or mineral poriiou of potatoes. Assuming a crop of potatoes to be ikt the rate of thirteen tons of tubers and five tons ot' tops, there would be extracted frvm .Db6 soil about five hundred pounds of ash containing onti bun* dred pounds of phosphate of :ime. assuming boneuiist to be i.he best, uay> six ptr cent, phosphate and i-is endurance to be, Say, eix yej.rs, without allowi: g for any logs, there would be required to be applied at the rate of seven cwt. to the a wire. .Now, superphosphate of lime (ttianrifa.ctured by Mo&rhouse and Co., North Canterbury) pr-jseuts the same ingredients, but to a large extent in a soluble condition, and therefore immediately available as plans foGd., the remainder being still bone phosphate in a tine state of division and easily ucted ou by the soil. Although soluble in water, the superphosphate does not wash, away with the drainage* but ia. precipitated by lime and othor bases in the- sail, distributing itself generally, and in an intensely fi'ic state of division. Top-dressing with stock-yard manure We cousider is a. ir,is:iike, am one of tiie most valuable cous-itueiiLs of S'ach manure is the amnionic it contains, cither in the already formed and §tjite orrts ; ureic and cympovuiitls, and this in very apt, uul.eea in wet wtather, to b& volatal'istd and lost. The other of stock-yard manure are not Such, as would be readily decomposed and aliable as plant food whm i.u a Ihin la>er as a top-dressing. Chemical mauures, on the other hand, are wuuh easier and Cheaper iu transport to tire various parts ot the farm, a.nd can bo atiplie i with a tr-actiou of the labour; Tbeir coustitu-nts uro in a readily available /orin, aod tue ivl&qcjtilz, being always in a iixed state, cauu&t be . bat is washud into tbasiUaod retained' by it fur the uouriihnient of the plants. By the system of applying bonedu&t aud stock-yard manure- top-dressing to such the amount r.f nitron adtnioi?tered to the soil is totally inadequate to iho maiutenaaee oi it? fertility. again, the crop of potatoes at thirteen tons per acre, tho amount o£ a inruon;a reo uircd would be about 1201bs. Bouedu&t. generally contains, about three to t-jree anu a half per 1 cent, of ammonia, and to give the amount rtqtiired by the would necessitate the application, of about oOcvrt. ptr aere. It will be seen by this the uttor inadequacy of tho general application. We ttould advise, as, in our oi.iiiioQ, a better treatment, this : That the iarm-yard manure be applied in such proportions as tb.e farmer may have with the potato crop, for which putash aud ammonia are very essential, and in which way they vrill be more readily and surely utilised, and that with its. nse every available kind of decayed or decaying vegetable njatter, and make up the dedciency with Moorhouse's Compound Manure and Superphosphate of Liii.c, and, in the case of cereals, a top diessing of the same. For pastures renewal we would recommend alternate applications of the Compound Manure and superph.Mj<hate of lime, using the latter liberally, but must strongly recommend for the purposes of retention the immediate application of, tay, two and a half to three tons of Uaksd lima per acre— and this should be repfc&.ted every seven yparS—tl>:g, not as a manme, but to cause the soil to readily act with tho fertilisers applied. If our opinion .ia acted upon, wa think yon Would secure a larger and Eoatider crop of potatoes, your weeds would be fewer and less vigorous, and your hay and ' picture would be sweeter, ino.e nutritions, ami more atundiinf, and should be pleased to hear the result, if you. should acr upon our opinion." I give publicity to Mr. Dick's opinion upon the deterioration of volcanic land, ' because I think it will prove practically correct, and the present- time is just the season when a trial can be put in operation. ; Slaked lime cati *->c obtained in Auck'laiid at Is per bushel, 30 bushels in 10 bags going for a ton, and some of the manure dealers ate in communication with Moorhouae and Co, for a supply of Compound arid super- - . phosphate of lime, which will be supplied at £9 pejr ton; so that farmers can tODdress their spring wheat and pastures and cultivate this Eea-on's crop of potatoes on the lines herein communicated. I shali tie glad to hear if the statement and scientific ■ opinions now given: be found of practical and ij beneficial interest to cultivators of the soil. ■; . H. S. A.