FERTILISERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21245, 28 January 1931, Page 11

FERTILISERS.

A NATIONAL NECESSITY. SUPPLEMENTING NATURAL RESOURCES. AN ANTIDOTE FOR FALLING 1 PRICES. •i • Ancient history and modem experience equally prove the truth of Cicero’s maxim that “ nothing is worthy of more estimation than agriculture.” If. indeed, we look to the past, whether we turn to Europe, Asia, Africa, or America; whether we put our trust in sacred or : secular history, we cannot dare to question the truth of what must have! been considered a self-evident axiom. On every hand we find evidence of. the high estimation in which agriculture, as a science, and its devotees, as a class, were generally held. And turning from the past to the present in our own country s it is more than ever true that nothing is better than agriculture, that nothing is of more vital importanoe than its improvement. If ancient example be not sufficient proof, the wealth it produces annually, and its capability of thus rendering us, in respect of the food we eat, Independent of those who are alien to us in name and interests, should form a most cogent argument in support of ancient sentiment in this respect, and should also provide ample evidence of the necessity for the most strenuous efforts in the direction of improving it. Scientific method and practice offer the surest means of achieving this most essential, end. On the success with which science is applied to the land depends the future of the primary industries, and of the ; national life which has risen with those industries, and which, must thrive or dwindle with them.- \ Fortunately there is not lacking in the farming community at the present time a sense of the need for making two blades of grass grow where one grew before, and although methods are still to some extent experimental rather than approved by testing, and[ the forces of indifference and false economy are still firmly entrenched, the widespread use of fertilisers to encourage Nature to do her best appeal's to be accomplishing much in that direction. There can be no escape from the fact that, if falling prices are to be met without lowering his standard of living, the producer must ■ discover and adopt more efficient and cheaper methods of production. The Dominion’s experience of the past decade .should be, sufficient to demonstrate how effective the application of fertilisers to the soil may be expected to prove in this, respect, and for that reason the whole question of the use Of artificial manures assumes a complexion * of vital national significance. • . It might be generally thought that in a : country in which.the pastoral and grazing industries are; its greatest wealth producers, a lively interest would be early taken in pasture improvement and in the development of grasslands. | But although for several decades New Zea-land-has been producing vast quantities of wool, meat, and 'dairy produce, it was not until very recent years that her farmers awakened'to the fact that profitable and successful farming consisted of more than the utilisation of the native . growths and herbage on which livestock appeared to thrive well enough. It is safe to say that it was not until the primary producer • was faced with a steadily rising tide of production costs that any real curiosity was exhibited in regard to the supplementing of natural resources by means of the topdressing of pastures and the general use of fertilisers. To state that the grasslands of the country are the mainstay of the New Zealand farmer is merely stressing the obvious. The truth of the statement is exemplified in almost every corner of the Dominion, and it is no less super-eroga-tofy to say that the establishment and maintenance of good pastures are dependent upon the application of manures to the soil, but it is doubtful whether anything could resurrect these platitudes more forcibly than the present precarious state of the primary industries, which has lifted the whole problem of heavier and cheaper production on to a plane of exceptional importance. In the past there has been a definite tendency to neglect the most important phases of pasture management, and whilst some attention has always been devoted to the aspects of culture, manuring, and stocking the subject never received the careful attention that it has attracted during the past few years. Naturally, therefore, -the knowledge that has been accumulated up to the present time is somewhat limited and has penetrated but slowly to the average farmer. It cannot, of course, be claimed that any special treatment by manures is capable of, replacing the conditions provided by careful stocking and by cultivation, and the importance of aeration and the effects of sun and light on swards must not be overlooked if fertilisers are to be expected to have their .full effect. Provided, however, that reasonable attention is otherwise being given to the land, there remains no question whatever as to the increased yields, larger profits, and successful farming that will result from a proper use of artificial manures. This fact is now universally recognis d, though the manuring of grassland is not as widely practised as is generally supposed. Nevertheless, the sure place now occupied in farming practice by phosphatic top-dressing of pastures, particularly in the dairying districts of the country, has undoubtedly attracted the attention of/ farmers on wider areas where grazing of sheep and cattle is the chief occupation and the demands on the soil are relatively lighter than on more intensively farmed land. On these areas the response to phosphate dressings has been very marked, and'no doubt the good results already attained will tend to make top-dressing as indispensable to their profitable farming as has been the case on dairying lands. Farmers in the past have relied too much on the virgin. fertility of the soils on the sheep and cattle country, but the natural reserves represented by ’the native grasses are showing signs of serious depletion, which, of course, causes a lowering of the carrying capacity, followed by diminished returns and_ a complementary increase in production costs. Now, with the wealth of data and information available, there can be no excuse for the neglect of one of the most important factors in the development of the country’s natural resources. It is doubtful, however, whether farmers have been altogether to blame for their .apathy in the past. It is unfortunate for the general diffusion of the great truths of science that learned men and research workers have too frequently amused, themselves by throwing dust in the eyes of the unlearned, clothing the history of their investigations iu°pedantic and technical language.- it is easy to comprehend why the medical man should wish to conceal the nature of his remedies from his nervous patients by the use of hieroglyphics to which only the profession possesses the key, but it is indefensible that interesting and elevating subjects should be rendered unintelligible and irksome to ‘’the average man who has not had time to master the slang of each branch of science by the adoption of an arbitrary vocabulary, itself requiring special study. Although in Nature everything is sublimely simple, the initiated render everything complicated by overlaid explanation. This has been the case in fcfc-y large measures with agricultural

research in the past, and many farmeas have been led fo wonder whether the experts were not concealing ignorance beneath their ceaseless flow of formidable words. Despite the utter simplicity of Nature the history of rural reseanch has been complicated and difficult for the farmer to follow. The connecting link between research station and farmer was for a very long time so slender as to be almost unreliable. But all this has changed, and the experimentalist now works along such lines as lend themselves to simple and convincing explanation to the least scientific mind. And l as a result there has been released a volume of valuable information and helpful advice in the matter of the use of fertilisers that has already had a wry definite effect on the pastoral progress of the Dominion. The Department of Agriculture has accumulated all manner of data fioom soil analysis, systematic field experiments and from the experience of farmers themselves, and this fund of useful knowledge has been disseminated among pastoralists to excellent e&ect, with the result that the use of fertilisers has now become one of the primary producer’s greatest aids. Even a time of such marked stringency as the present is powerless to detract hi the smallest degree from the paramount importance, of fertilisers to the land. Indeed, the farmer needs such artificial aids to prosperity more in times of stress than in the piping days of pllenty. When prices, are falling the need for reduced costs and increased output becomes greater in proportion to the diminution of values, and farmers can afford less than ever to neglect such profitable practices, although it is highly improbable that there will be unanimous agreement on that point among the ranks of the farmers. If the use of fertilisers has been of national importance in the past few yiears, it becomes a matter of infinitely greater moment at a time like the present.