ARABLE FARMING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19759, 9 April 1926, Page 4

ARABLE FARMING.

OLD AND NEW METHODS. YESTERDAY'S CROPS AND TO-DAY’S. The livestock • industry; and more particularly milk production' and the breeding of dairy cattle, has made considerable progress during the last 25 years; but when wc come to consider the other aide of farming, that is' to say corn-growing and the cultivation of arable land, it seems that our methods of farming are going backwards instead of forwards. Arable farming has been on the downward grade since the time when acute agricultural depression set in, when many farms became derelict, and others were allowed to lapse into such a state of cultivation , that the only remedy was to lay .them all down in grass, much of the arable land having already been permitted to tumble down without having been properly seeded. The shortage of labour during the war, and th large increase in wages an,, all other outgoings, generally put an end to blah cultivation even on those farms on which the best methods had always been adopted. Today it is quite obvious to anyone who travels through the country that t. c soil is not nearly so well cultivated as it was a quarter of a century ago. It is- true that on some farms, in which there is a big capital to work ur good cultivation is practised, labour is not spared, and good yields of corn are obtained; but taking the country as a whole there are tar more poor crops than good ones to be seen now-a-days, and the yield of grain is on the whole much below what it should be. What is wrong with out present methods of farming? The answer is that the soil is in many cases starved of labour and needs this thorough methods of cultivation and fertilisation without which good crops cannot be produced. lieavy soils have perhaps suffered more than light ones. Rare fallowing has generally fallen into disuse, and steam cultivation immediately after harvest is expected to take the place of the bare fallow. Consequently the heavy land does not get the rest it needs, nor such thorough cleaning from twitch and other persistent weeds. Autumn cultivation in heavy soils is excellent as far as it goes, but nless harvest is early weeds are not eradicated and, although the soil is opened out and aerated and prepared for further cropping, the effect is bv no means as good as a bare fallow. Then again liming is but rarely practised nowadays, and a great proportion of arable land is sadly in need of lime. Fifty years ayo farmers made a practice of periodically limintr their land; chalking, too, was also extensively done. Xow one rarely sees heaps of lime waiting to be Spread about in the arable fields in autumn Early cultivation in the autumn, too, is all-important, particularly to enable heavy soils to get the benefit of frost. Much of the ploughing is done too late in the year, and sometimes is not done until the spring, when in the case of strong land *t is often unworkable. All ploughing should be done in early winter, for frost and frosty winds greatly facilitate tlie production of a good filth for spring seeding. We do not use the plough enough in those davs, and this is one reason why docks and thistles are so much in evidence. Farmers of the old school were great believers in the plough, not only as being a great asset to the nation, but also as the chief factor in good cultivation. Cross ploughing in early spring, after autumn ploughing, was a practice almost universally adopted at one time, and the plough is the greatest enemy to the dock and the thistle. Frequent ploughings promote good tilth They assist drainage and keep weeds in check, anti in those cases where the plough is made good use of, much scuffling, harrowing, and rolling is needed.. Deep ploughing is advisable on most soils, but on some of the heaviest clays there is no need to plough to a greater depth than 7in. while in light sandy and loamy soils 9in or lOin is better for winter ploughing for roots; but for wheat, barley, or oats, 4in or Sin is quite sufficient depth to turn over the soil

It hay be said that modern implements have rendered more than one ploughing unnecessary. This mav be so on light soils, but on heavy land it will still be found in practice that two good ploughings and a hard frost will do more to promote a good seed bed than all the scuffles that nave been invented. As different soils require different different treatment, no hard and fast rules as to methods of cultivation can be laid down; but it may safely be said that the bulk of our arable land is in need of better cultivation than it gets. Hand hoeing and . horse hoeing are not practised so much as they should be, and weeds are allowed to choke the corn crops for want of hoeing. ‘‘One year s seeding means seven ears’ weeding” is as applicable now as ever it was, and u?*less constant. warfare is waged against weeds they can never be kept in check, to say nothing of being eradicated. Manuring is wasted unless proper methods of cultivation are adopted, but whether it is worth while to spend money on cultivation in order to grow corn crops that can only be produced at a loss is a matter for serious consideration. At any rate, poor crops cannot pay expenses. It is essential to work for increased yields and lower costs of production, and in some cases this seems to have been successfully achieved by a combination of arable and stock farming. The only alternative is a further extension of the area laid down in grass. With all the modern inventions in implements of husbandry, and in spite of all that science has taught us in regard to manuring and the use of fertilisers, the bald fact remains that we do not grow as good crops as were grown 50 years ago. •