THE FARM.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 753, 6 August 1886, Page 15

THE FARM.

GREEN MANURE.

The question of green manure is just now attracting a good deal of attention abroad. In Saxony and Silesia, where an almost purely sandy soil abounds, where there is consequently but little fodder, and cattle feeding will not pay, the want ot ordinary manure has led to the practice of employing instead such green crops as clover and vetches. The procedure iB as follows :—So soon as the rye—a common crop in Saxony—has flowered, yellow vetch seed is sown among it in the proportion of 2J bushels to the acre. Protected by the rye-stalks, the vetches soon sprout, but are still to young at harvest time to be touched by the reaping machine. Immediately afterwards they shoot ahead rapidly, and out to be in full flower at the beginning of September. The field is then well rolled, so as to thoronghly ‘ lay ’ the plants and the plough follows the roller, ploughing in the vetch crop. Every four or five years about 4 cwb to the acre of some of the common phosphates are spread over the ground before the passage of the plough. This treatment enables the Saxon farmer to get a good wheat crop out of his land after several good crops of rye. The chemists explain that it is the great quantity of nitrogen in the succulent green plants that works the chief part of the miracle, while the decomposition of the fresh vegetable matter underground gives off carbonic acid which attacks the inert silicates and turns them into assimilable salts. But besides this the vetches, until they have quite rotted away, hold moisture for the roots of the following grain crop —a great point in sandy ground—and when decomposition is complete they give a vegetable mould which is invaluable as a bond in. a loose, ungrateful, silicious soil. WORK THE MALE ANIMALS. To keep a stallion in a box stall the year round and require a man to spend his time to exercise him is a waste of time for man and beast. It does a stallion good to work. We know a farmer who has a pair of draft stallions which he uses for a farm team to haul loads to market. They are in perfect health, and get worked enough to make them kind and gentle. They advertise

themselves, and no time is spent running around to show them. They work on the farm in early spring, and do light work during the season of service, and are_ better sires on that account, and their get is more vigorous. There are plenty of bulls, too, made almost impotent for want ot work. They are costly and often get ugly. They may be used in a cart singly with collar and harness, or they may be broken to work in a yoke with an ox or stag bull. There is no expense for one-half the team, and the bull is less trouble and a much better animal for stock purposes. The boll can be put on the near side, and if at all refractory he can be easily managed by a rope in his ring. They should be put in when a year old, and it does no harm to have the mate older. A bull at one year old is c»pable of hauling as much as a small horse, and at two years old he can do the work of a horse. When the bull’s mate is old enough to turn off for beef a younger animal may be broken in by the side of the bull. When a bull or stser is well halter-broken and made to mind at the vford —to back up and stand around, as all bulls and heifers should be when calves — they may be brpben to go in the yoke in half a day. This kind of a team willofteD save an extra pair of horses, and their use and growth will pay for their keeping.— Our Country Home. AN AGRICULTURAL EXAMINATION. The following are the questions asked of a number of candidates in a recent agricultural examination in England, and we append a selection from the answers made by the two came out at the head of the list :

QUPSTIONS. I. —The Soil is (I) a warehouse of the food of plants—(2) a laboratory in which the food of the plant is prepared —(3) a machine by which the food of plants is adminstered. 1. As a warehouse —(a) On what ingredients in it does the fertility of a soil principally depend ?—(b) By what operations on the farm is the store of these ingredients kept replenished ?—(c) Is there any other store-room of plant food, and what does it supply ? 2As a laboratory—(a) On what processes in it does the fertility of the soil depend ?—(b) What new chemicals are annually or occasionally added to it in the operations of the farm?—(o) What processes are these substances likely, severally, to quicken or set going, or, possibly, to check ? 3. As a machine (a) What are the mechanical characteristics of a soil on which its ability to administer plant food depends ?—(b) What annual or occasional operations are conducted on soi in order to maintain or improve its capability as a machine for feeding plants ?—(c) What improvements in the mechanical ability or character of a soil are these operations, severally, likely to effect ? XX. —The Crops are (1) sown in properly prepared ground—(2) cultivated during their growth—(3) harvesting either for use upon the farm or for despatch to market. 1. As to seed time (a) What are the conditions of successful germination required by all seeds ? (b) What are the special circumstances of any field, whether as to character of soil, or present condition, or past history, which would mark it out as fit for wheat or turnips for next year’s crop ? 2 As to cultivation. — (a) What things are essential in the condition of land in order to the success of any crop on it ? (b) Describe the cultivation of the turnip crop from seed-time till harvest-time.—(c) What are the risks of failure which the turnip crop incurs during growth ; and what is the best way of meeting them ? 3. As to harvest (a) At what stage of ripeness should wheat, barley, oats, respectively, be cut? —(b) What is a silo, and how do you manage in order to the production of sweet silage or of sour ? 11l, —The Live Stock of the Farm.— 1. Enumerate them—naming all the breeds of each kind, and adding a few words descriptive of each breed. 2. What are the principal ingredients in food as determined by chemical analysis ? 3. What becomes of these several ingredients of any food when given—say to a cow in milk ? 4. Describe the process of cheese-making. AKWSEBS. X. The Soil,.—l. (a) The ingredients on which its fertility principally depends are : 1. Ash or inorganic ingredients, potash, as soda, lime, magnesia, oxides of iron and manganese, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, &c. These ingredients are necessary for the growth of all plants. 2. Organic ingredients, as organic matter, which is generally composed of four elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. (b) The operations on the farm by which these ingredients are kept replenished are 1, Annual operations, as (a) Tillage, which exposes more of tho land to the action of the air, thus allowing the dormant matter to get oxidised and changed into active matter or fit for the plant to receive, (b) Ploughing the land in autumn, which exposes the land to the action of the frost, which pulverises it thus allowing plants to extract their food from every particle of the eoil, and increasing the soil’s absorbant power for manures which increases the supply of plant food. 2Occasional operations (a) Drainage, which increases the depth of the aclive soil- thus giving a larger feeding space for the plant. (b) Subsoil ploughing, which brings up the under soil to the surface, to be acted upon by the air, and changed in aa available form for the plant, (o) The other store-room of food for plants is the air, which supplies carbon in the form of carbonic acid and nitric acid in small quantities, formed in the air by lightning and brought down by rains.

2. (a) The processes in a soil on which its fertility depends are : —l. Absorption.—The taking ia and retaining the materials necessary for the plant. 2. Capillary attraction, by which tho soil draws up moisture and with it other ingredients to the surface and disperses them through the whole mass of soi’. 3. Oxidation, or the changing in the soil, by the oxygen of the atmosphere, of the dormant ingredients into active. (b) The new chemicals which are added annually in manures are ammonia, potash, soda, superphosphate, nitrates of potash and soda, occasionally lime. Farmyard manure supplies all, or very nearly all, of these chemical constituents, so also does feeding sheep on the land, and applying guano, night- soil, sewerage, animal refuse, decayed fish, seaweed. Special chemi-

cals are supplied by euperphophato of lime and b nes.

(c) Lim9 acts ; —l. As direct food. 2. By making other foods more available. (3). By lightening the mechanical texture of the soil. Common salt, supplies food, is a great sweetener of the laud, prevents corn running to straw. Nitrate of soda, in addition to giving direct food, is also a ‘ whip ’ —greatly stimulates growth by making the young plant more healthy and so more able to find food for itself. If used too much is liable to make corn run to straw.

3. (a.) The mechanical characteristics on which the fertility of a soil depends are— Porosity, texture, friability, fineness or cohesivenesa of the soil, depth of soil, power of absorbing water, character of the subsoil, and color.

(b.) The annual operations tending to improve the character of the soil as a machine for feeding plants are—ordinary tillage, as ploughing, harrowing and rolling, and autumn ploughing, and proper rotations of crops. Occasional operations are—Drainage, steam cultivation, subsoil ploughing, paring and burning, claying. (c.) Its nature is improved by mixing, trench ploughing, i.e., mixing it with subsoil ; also by warping, clay burning, liming, manuring. Its subsoil is improved by subsoil ploughing, and draining. Its physical condition is influenced by the tillage operations of ploughing, grubbing, cultivating, harrowing, rolling, pressing. Trees can be planted to afford shelter if required. Its porosity is influenced by draining ; and the water eupply by artificial irrigation. Autumn ploughing brings up sour lands, to the surface, and exposes them to the air, raiD, and frost?. As to rotations, soils should follow each other in an order which gives an opportanity for cleaning the land. Drainage increases the depth of the soil, gets rid of stagnant water, and thus raises the temperature gives greater amount of feeding space for the plant. Steam cultivation, produces nearly the same effect as drainage. Subsoiling brings the subsoil to the surface where it becomes oxidised, its contents becomes changed into plant food. Paring and burning changes the useless organic matter of the surface into plant food. Claying increases the cohesive power of the soil. II. — Oboes. —1. (a) The conditions for the germination of the seed are the presence of beat, moisture, free access of atmospheric air, a proper seed-bed —and plentiful supply of plant food in an available state for the plant to take it in as soon as it begins to grow. (b) The special circumstances of any field which would mark it out 39 capable of growing wheat or turnips are :As regards character of soil—lt should be a stiff' soil for wheat, and a light soil for turnips. As to the present condition of the land which would influence your selection of wheat or turnips— If it is in loa put wheat; if in oat stubble, turnips ; if it is in a fine and pulverised condition turnips should be chosen ; if it is stiff and clayey put wheat. As regards paßt history—lf it has been growing cereal crops put turnips, if green crops, wheat. 2. (») The things which are essential in the condition of the land for the success of any crop are—that it should be in that state mechanically which Saits the crop which it is intended to grow. It should he free from stagnant water. It should be of such a depth that the plant can searoh for its food. It should have a plentiful supply of ingredients necessary for the crop, and it should be of such a porous nature as to allow a regular supply of plant food to reach the roots of the crop. UNTHRESHED OATS FOR HORSES. Unthreshei oats are a better feed for horses than the grain alone, or the grain and straw both fed, but separately. The albuminoid ratio of the grain of oatß is I'6l ; of the straw of oats, 1-199. The food for horses at ordinary work would have an albuminoid ratio of 1 70. Hence, the grain of oats should be mixed with food having a lower albuminoid ratio. We might get a ration—having the proper ratio—by using corn with the oats. But it is well known that for grain to be well digested it must be eaten with some tort of stover to form the necessary bulk in the stomach. For stover we might use timothy, which has an albuminoid ratio of 1-81, and would give the necessary bulk. But it is much better to have the grain and the stover eaten together. We may cut the hay, mix it and the grain together, and moisten the mixture; but we can accomplish the same thing more economically by feediog unthreshed oats, for then the grain, all the chaff and a good part of the straw are masticated together. By thus feeding oats we not only improve the albuminoid ratio of the ration and provide the necessary forage masticated with the grain, but we save the expense of threshing. Oats to be fed in this way should be cut before they are quite ripe, cured thoroughly, and then moved away. They are just the feed for winter, when the horses require carbo-hydrates ; and because of their manner of feeding are so well digested, and are so well suited to the wants of the horse that he will do a great deal better upon them than he would upon almost any other food.