CULTIVATING THE SOIL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1288, 5 November 1896, Page 5

CULTIVATING THE SOIL.

The farmer should always remember that cultivation is as necessary to the land as manure, and even more so, for the introduction of air into the soil tends to utilise its fertility. But on poor soil, especially that of sandy character, tillage can do but little good, for in such soils there is little carbonaceous matter for the air to decompose. But wherever manure is applied cultivation greatly increases its effectiveness. Every time the cultivator stirs the surface soil it introduces more air into it, and hastens the decomposition of the manure. There is, therefore, sound reason for the.common practice of applying manures liberally to the crops that require the greatest amount of cultivation. There is another way also in which manure helps, and that is by increasing weeds so as to make frequent cultivation necessary. If the soil could be entirely freed of weed seeds the crops would not get cultivation enough to secure their best growth. It is thus that the beneficence of nature is vindicated in a matter where, on superficial thought, the farmer is most apt to think that this feature of nature’s operations is against him. The rain which makes the crops grow makes weeds grow also. If the farmer has been forehanded and killed all the weeds as fast as they germinate, the more weed seeds in his soil the better his crop will be.