THE FARM

New Zealand Mail, Issue 810, 9 September 1887, Page 15

THE FARM

A, B. C. of Agriculture. SOIL CONSTITUENTS FIBST EXHAUSTED. (AMBBICiN AGEICOLTUBIST ) In the ordinary course of tillage, the prodnctiori and removal of crops, only a part of which, if any, is returned to the soil, as we would naturally suppose these conslituents, which occur in greatest quantity in the ashes of plants, and in email quantities in the soil, are the first to give out in the soil. The chief of these are potash and phospheric acid, the former occurring most abundantly in the stems, leaves, and roots, of ordinary crops ; the latter in the grain and ripened seeds. Nevertheless the stems, leaves, etc., and particularly edible roots, contain much phosphoric acid, and the seeds much potash. Thus there is a steady draft upon these two soil constituents. Besides, the nitrogen in the soil, either at present or remotely available as plant food, existing as it does either in some form of organic matter, or as ammonia, or nitric acil, is constantly and severely being drawn upon by agricultural crops. We have, therefore, three substances of vital importance which, if supplied to the soil in an available form, will increase or prolong its fertility almost indefinitely, other things being favourable. These are Potash, Phosphoric Acid, and Nitrogen, in the form to yield either ammonia or nitric acid. ABTIFJCrAL FEBTILIZEBS. We have already considered brii fly the value of barn-yard manure—the universal fertilizer —of which few farmers who know its value, or aie not located upon what they regard sa soils of inexhaustible fertility, ever have enough. To supply the lack of stable or barn* yard manure, and to Bupply in small bulk and little weight fertilizing material for out-lying fields, or fields so high or so distant that ihe mere hauling of stable manure would co 4 all or more than it is worth, the demand arises for fertilizers in a concentrated form. This demand is supplied in a more and more fatisfactory mariner every year, and inasmuch as it is quite impossible for the ordinary consumer —farmer or garlener—to judge of the value of three forms of manures by inspection, odor, texture, or any outward marks, the governments of many States, following the example •of the German principalities, have passed laws requiring the percentage of potash, soluble and insoluable phosphoric acid, and available nitrogen, as ammonia or nitric acid, to be printed or brauded upon the barrels or bags in which they are sold. At the same time

agricultural experimental stations have been established, where, if properly selected samples of fertilizers, sold in the State, are sent, they will be analyzed, and their true value published. -Where this system prevails, there is little fraud in fertilizers, and their use is extending year by year, Certain kir-os are adapted to general use ; others to specific crops, e. g., wheat, tobacco, potatoes, stray/berries, etc. We have, therefore, iu these fertilizers, ordinarily reliable, useful, and, if applied with good judgment, economical substitutes for stable manure. The advantages they offer are not to be overlooked, They distribute no weed seed, they are neither bulky nor heavy, being thus easily transported, even where waggons cannot go.; and evenly and perfectly distributed by hand. The fact that they add little or no organic matter to the soil, as does stable manure, must be counterbalanced by a system of culture involving the occasional turning under of o sward, or of a green crop of some kind. Besides these there is a class of fertilizers which do not act directly as plant food, supplying to the soil the constituents takeD, or to be taken by the crop, but which by their action upon the soil itself, or upon the plant, or both, either render plant food already in soil available to the crop, or so affect the plant as to enable it the more readily to take the supply of plant food it needs for a big crop. Among these substances, lime, gyp/um (land plaster), aud common salt are conspicuous, and in fact most fertilizers, stable manure included, act somewhat in this way. Thus long before concentrated fertilizars were in use, the fact was known and largely made use of, that gypsum, served upon mowing land, had a remarkably favorable action on the growth of clover, bringing it in where it had apparently disappeared. This effect was produced not by gypsum, which is sulphate of lime, being plant food, which indeed it is, but on account of a specfic action upon the plant itself. The study of the specific action of artificial and concentrated fertilizers is hardly adapted to these articles, important though it is. Every farmer should know about them, and besides it is important to know also that in our manufacturing country there are multitudes of waste products, many of which may be made very useful either applied directly to the land, or as constituents of c impost heaps. VALUE OF COJIMEBCIAL FEBTILIZEES. We have alluded to the laws requiring the constituents of artificial fertilizers to be marked upon the packages. To understand these statements the buyer must understand that the important constituents, already noted, exist in different forms of essentially different commercial and agricultural value. The commercial value of anything is what it can be bought for, the agricultural value is what it is worth to the farm and to the farmer.

The great source of phosphoric acid is the bones of animals, which consist largely of phosphate of lime. Iu artificial fenilizers this acid almost always occurs as phosphate of lime, but in three recognised forms ; First in the soluble form, as it is in tbe bones ; second, in a form soluble in water to which it is brought by the action of sulphuric acid upon the ground bones, and third, in what is called reverted phosphate—that is phosphate which has been rendered soluble but has changed back to the insoluble form, but is in a condition very different from the pieces of bone in which it at first existed, being almost infinitely tine. This indeed is the condition which the soluble phosphate quickly assumes, after it becomes diffused by rains in tho soil. Tbe soluble phosphate, or soluble phosphoric acid, is by far the most valuable of the three forms, because when placed in or upon the soil, the rains dissolve it aud wash it down into the soil, where it becomes widely diffu-ed, and very soon by the action of tho lime or other constituents of the soil, it is changed to the reverted form, and so remains until taken up by the roots of plant?. Tbe reverted phosphate in the fertilizer not being soluble in the rains, remains where it is thrown, and (o be available to the plant must be thoroughly mixed with the soil. This can af course never be so thoroughly done as the rains distribute the soluble phosphate, hence its lower value. The insoluble phosphate consists of those pieces of bone which Lave not been acted upon by the acid to make them soluble. It is of great, use in the soil, for the roots of the plants will find Ihe particles and gradually make use of them, but it may not be for a year or two. There are other sources of phosphoric acid besides bones. Pure phosphate of lime is found as a mineral in the rocks, and i 3 ground up, acted upon by acid, and made available as a fertilizer. It is, however, leps easily acted upon, ar.d the undis3olved particles of very little uee in tbe soil, on account of this solidity and insolubility. Another and very valuable source of phosphates is the phosphate rock and river deposits of South Carolina. This stone is much softer, more easily reduced to a fine powder by grinding, and when of a quality I o make the use of acid to render it soluble profitable, is of high value. Some phosphate rock contains much lime, which makes it necessary to use large quantities of sulphuric acid, before the phosphate is properly act;d upon. Thus it will be seen that net only the analysis should be considered, but also the source of the phosphoric acid, which is not always ea3.y to ascertain. Potash in fertilizers is always in a soluble condition. Nitrogen, however, exists in many forme. In h dr, wool, or leather, it is in a very slowly available form, while in dried blood, or flesh, which decompose quickly, it is very soon available to the plant. Iu analyses, ammonia is usually reported as actual ; potential, which is nearly or quite ns good, available, and remotely available, and as in tho c tj.se of phosphoric acid, each form has a d fferent value. The other constituents of commercial fertilizers are usually not regarded as having sufficient value to make it worth while to report them, WATEB. The exceedingly great value of water as means of conveying fertility to the soil and of diffusing it iu the soil, must be always borne in mind, not alone in connection with the use of commercial fertilizers, but in every way. There 'is no way by which stable manure, partly decomposed, can be made to go so far or produce so great effects, as when its virtues are extracted by water, and the water then applied, either very dilute by irrigation, or by

the watering-cart or haud-sprinkler, to growing plant’. Source of the Supply of Nitrogen. There is a great deal of evidence which appears to support the theory that luguminous plants, at least, derive a large amount i f nitrogen from the atmosphere. Hitherto Sir. John Lawes and Dr Gilbert have been the strongest opponents of the theory, which they still hold to be not proven. Protestor Atwater, an American chemist, has recently published a series of articles on the subject, in the course of which he argues that observations reported by Lawes and Gilbert in England, Deheran in Prance, and Schulz Lupitz in Germany, show that, after the removal of heavy lugumin,ous crops, with their large quantities of nitrogen, the soil was richer iu nitrogen than be fore the crop was sown. If tbe plants deiived all their nitrogen from the soil, he asks, how could they have more after producing them than before ? Sir John Lawes in reply says that what has been established at Bothamstead is the fact that, after a clover-crop has been removed three or four times as much nitrogen as a barley crop growing in the same field, the first nine inches of the cloversoil will contiin the larger amount of nitrogen of the two ; but he believes it to be more likely that the surplus nitrogen has been brought up by the subsoil than that it has been derived from the atmosphere. Professor Atwater, however, referred to peas aud beans as well as to clover. Large and Small Breeds of Swine. Conditions are so varied that it would be almost impossible to secure a breed of hogs that can be considered as the best for every farmer and breeder. This, to me, is really the principal diffsiencs between the champions of large and Bmall breeds. One man who in his mind may be considered a thorough breeder may be able to secure the highest prices and the best market, and consequently will be able to realise the most profit by breeding and feeding what we usually consider small pigs. Another man may be equally as careful and as thorough a breeder, and know fully as much about the science of breeding as the other, but bis sur. roundings may he such that he is able to realise a larger profit by breeding larger hogs. Each in his'line may be fully as capable a breeder as the other, and may be doing; the best possible under the conditions be is placed in. Hence the fact that one breeder finds that large hogs are with him the most profitable to breed and feed. And it is nothing more than natural that he should consio'er that large hoes are the best breeds of hogs for the farmer. "The same rule will apply to small breeds. They do not take fully into consideration the different conditions others may be placed under. And here really is tbe only fault in their argument. E-cause they reason that every other breeder and feeder could be successful if they would adopt and carry out tbe same plan they ate carrjing out. With very many the market has much t> »)o wi h the sizes. There is this point that must always be kept in view; If you can secure the highest prices, other things,being equal, for small pigs, it will seem more like business to breed email hogs. If on the other hand you are most convenient to a market where large heavy bogs will sell for the most money, other thingß being equal, you can, of course, secure the most profit by breeding and feeding large hogs. Sound business judgment would certainly dictate the breeding of large hogs. To attempt to feed a lot of the small breed of hogs until they have attiined the necessary growth to make large hogs, or to try to fatten for market the large breed of hogs when they are just making a good growth will certainly fail to feoure the largest profits. Early maturity has now to a large extent become almost a necessity, but at the same time it dots not pay to market immatursd stock ; or, on the other hand, does it pay to keep stock for any considerable length of time aft r they have attained their growth. My rule has always been to fted so as to secure as thoroughly as possible, a steady gain from the start, aud then market whenever the stock is in the best marketable condition. In following out this plan I should certainly select a breed best adapted to the circumstances under which I found myself. If I could raise a small bog the most economically, and then could sell in market at the highest price, I should certainly breed and fatten small hogs. If under other circumstances I found that the large hogs were the most economical for me to feed, aud in the market the most convenient, aud I could secure the highest prices for heavy hogs, I would select aud bread only heavy hogs. Of the two kinds, each has advantages, and for some purposes is better tban the others, but for all conditions neither quite comes up to perfection, and when I see or heav of a breeder making the broad claim that for all purposes his breed is the be3t, I am reasonably sure to believe that to some extent he is prejudiced. I believe in all reason in advancing my own breed of bogs, but at tbe same time, am conservative enough to admit that under some circumstances some other breeds have points of excellence which mine do not possess. This is the way to a great extent, I regard large and small hogs. They each supply a demand—and those who can supply this demand at the lowest eo3t, and receive in return tbe best market price will secure tbe most profit, and that is to a great extent the primary object in breeding and feeding hogs whether large or small, Swine Breeders Journal. Provide Hay Caps. Heavy unbleached sheeting, a yard wide, is cut into yard squares ; the rough edges trimmed, and the corners turned up and Btitched to form a loop in which to run the cord for fastening. A short piece of cord is passed into the corners and tied to form a loop large enough to admit a btout wooden pin. These pins "should be provided before hand. The cocks should be well rounded, the caps laid on, and one>f the pins passed through each corner loop,‘and thrust into the hay, Stretch the caps as Binooth as possible.

Germs and the Germ Theory. ' The germ theory of disease, or. that infectious and contagious diseases are due to organisms in the tissues or fluids of the body, and which in carrying on the processes of their own living f unctions, produce changes that become ' apparent as diseases of various kinds, aud which may end in death, is now, says the Farm Field and Stockman, widely accepted. In fact in certain cases, it is no longer theory. Specific organisms have been seen under the microscope and described. The experiments of Pasteur and other investigators have proved that these when introduced into the body will, without fail, develop the disease with which they have been previously known to be associated. Hence, by analogy, we may infer that many other diseases will be found to be due to the actions of germs, though as yet the particular kind may not have been discovered.

A scientific writer in the North British Agriculturalist, in relation to the germ theory in classing the majority of these organisms as vegetable, but reckoned the lowest in the scale, and included in the general class of protopbyta, says the genera and species known are numerous, and likely to be added to indefinitely, if as it is believed, maDy other diseases will be found to be caused by varieties of them .The best known generally are various species of Miciococci, Bacteria, Bacilli, etc, and adds : The first of these species are under the microscope, seen to be globnlar “ little berries the bacteria are oval, or of short cyliudric shape ; while the bacilli are of a thin, straight, rod-like form. It must not be supposed that all germs are malignant in their tendency, for, as a matter of fact, some of the most useful and necessary processes of nature are carried out through the agency of forms allied to those which cause disease, and, further, these organisms can carry on their functions either outside or inside the animal body. Various kinds of fermentation including the alcoholic and the putrefactive, the souring of milk and the ripeningof cheese, the formation of nitric acid in the soil, and even the digestion of the food in the stomach—are all dne to the action of germs allied to one another, and to those causiug disease.

Before going farther it is proper to state that it is by no means certain that any germ has power to produce disease or disorganization in the healthy subject, either animal or vegetable. The probable supposition is that these germs find their true nidus in unhealthy tissues. Blight aud other disorganization in plants are probably the result of previous disability arising from meteorological or soil conditions and the germs always found floating, if the plant be constantly in the atmosphere of them especially during epidemics, the system may be gradually so impaired through lessened vital action, that it may become a proper nidus for the germs, where the natural conditions are abuormal. In the case of animals or man, this liability to infection may be inten-iried through vavios causes. Of course, where the animal or plant is inoculated with the virus, entering as it would directly into the circulation, the case would be different. The system would be directly imbued with the virus. Thus animals or inan directly inoculated with a contagious virus generally take the disease. Yet this but proves but one phase of a subject out of many. One thing however, seems conclusively proved ; the danger of taking infection directly into the system, through direct exposure to the virus. Yet physicians are seldom attacked. Why ? They take proper precautions against it, and use means for self protection. In fact, the writer in the contemporary previously quoted admits that, ‘ Animals in perfect good health can resist their attacks with impunity, aud this is perhaps the reason why man and beast have not been long ago swept off the face of the earth, while sanitation and a proper regime tend to keep the evils in check; and with some forms an actual introduction of the virus into the body is necessary to start them. The writer in continuation, says :

Nearly every one has heard of the discovery by Pasteur of the germs which cause rabies in dogs, chicken cholera, pleuropneumonia, the Bacillus anthracis of anthrax diseases, etc., etc., and of the identification of the bacillus of tuberculosis with that of consumption in human beings by Koch. The life history of all of them is very similar ; they consist for the most part of single cells (or an aggregation of cells), each bein' an individual capable of carrying on all the functions of life. They multiply.ty ‘gemmation ’ or * fission that is new individuals grow out of the side of the old ones and drop off, or the interior of a cell divides into two parts, the whole breaks up and each part becomes a separate and independent germ. They all resemble one another in the nature of the food they absorb, in that they cannot live without nitrogenous substances—solution of pure sugar, for instance, remaining unaltered, but immediately some albuminoid is introduced, alcoholic or some other fermentation is set up. The nature of the products resulting from this living action is the principal point wherein they differ; lactic acid in milk is the excretion or secretion of the B. lactis, nitric acid in the soil from the nitrifying germ, morbid blood in the tissues aud vessels of the animal body from the B anthracis of splenic fever, and so on. It has been conclusively proved by the experiments of Tyndall and others that these germs and their products do not spring spontaneously into being, but are derived from pre-existing individuals, and further that the air is swarming with them—the malignant a 3 well as the useful forms—ready to settle down and develop whenever a suitablo ‘nidus’ presents itself. Tyndall has further shown that they are very difficult to kill, as he found that continuous boiling for several hours was needed to put an end to the putrefractive forms, while excefsive dryness or cold only makes them dormant for the time being. The subject is of vast importance not only in domestic animals but in the human family. In certain virulent diseases as hydrophobia, and especially in the contagious form of pleura-pneumonia in bovine animals, the incubatory stages of which are imperfectly known, aud especially in contagious pleuro-pneumouia the length of time which

cattle may carry and communicate the contagion after apparent recovery is not perfectly known. It would seem to be dangerous to inoculate with this class of diseases. *n fact, in the case of plenro-pueumonia, Holland did not exterminate t his disease until inoculation had been suspended, and all infected animals and those having been exposed had been killed. In fact we want far more light than we now have before accepting inoculation as a safeguard against either hydrophobi i or pleuro-pueumonia, or as it is now termed, lung plague. W r i h this we return to a resuuffi of experiments as contained in the article as before noticed. Pasteur obtained matter from the carcases of cattle which had died of charbonus disease and had been buried for twelve years, and the B. anthracis still retained sufficient vitality to induce the disease in animals which were inoculated with it, aud the same germs have been found in the worm-casts over the ground where such carcases lie buried. Disinfectants such as chloride of lime, burning sulphur, carbolic acid, etc., are simply used for the purpose of killing or reducing the vitality of these germs floating in the air. Pi-of. Lister who inaugurated the antiseptic system of surgery found that the raw surface of wounds were liable to form putrefactive germs but allowing of a hialthy recovery. The latest development of this branch of knowledge is the discovery by Pasteur that many of these germs can be ‘ cultivated ’ outside of their hosts in suitable fluids, and that succeeding generations gradually become weaker and less virulent until a stage is reached when they can be reintroduced into the animal body, when they only produced feeble symptoms of their own particular variety of disease, and animals so treated are found to be more or less proof against all future attacks of the same disease. This i 3 the principle of ‘ inoculation,’ which he and others have successfully practiced in connection with pleuro-pneu-monia and other diseases. The writer of this fears that because certain diseases have been traced to the presence of * germs,’ even cholera, that it should not give foundation for the belief that all contagious affections will follow suit, and render it possible —as Pasteur upholds —for such to be exterminated from our planet. =