A LOCAL FARM MANUAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1584, 1 April 1882, Page 6

A LOCAL FARM MANUAL.

" The Now Zealand Practical Agriculturist " is the title of a now book just placed in our hands for perusal. It may be found a useful work to many who are engaged in the practice of farming. It contains nearly 400 pages of closely printed matter. We learn from the title page and preface that the author, Conrad Hoos, has a very wide farming experience in the Colony, on the Continent of Europe, and in Scooland. This fact should lead our practical farmers to secure the book for themselves, and read what one of their number has to say about the profession in which they are engaged. It would not be a bad book to place within reach of all station hands. The book, from a publisher's stand point, is a very creditable production, and for Messrs Mills, Dick, and Co., Dunedin, a word of praise may be written. We must confess to a little disappointment after reading tho work j through. We could wish that another title had been selected. It does not treat of farming as a whole, but refers only to crops that may be grown upon farms, and then it is not confined to New Zealand productions, but describes in a most elaborate style the plants that have been grown in Europe and other countries. Truo, tho word "agriculturist," strictly speaking, means the cultivating of the soil, sowing and planting soods, rearing crops, &c, but in modern days it means this, and the raising and fattening of stock, with ; the production of milk, &c. So the word " farmer " originally meant one who leased and cultivated land on condition that the cultivator supplied the landlord .with proyisions for himself and household, making what he could out of the bargain. It has a very different meaning now. An agriculturist in New Zealand, as elsewhere, , to our mind signifies one who produces food (vegetable and animal), with the raw material | for clothing ; and we find in nearly all modern agricultural works attempting to deal with the whole question this is the view taken. Without stock.f arming will not pay. Perhaps . the mistake in the title is made through the author being more familar with a Continental tongue than with the English' language." If we are correct in this supposition it will account for many of the sentences, which to an ordinary English reader will be found hard to understand. This should not detract from the merit due to tho author, but; considering the aim of the writer and the difficulties with I he has had to contend, should be a justifiable excuse for this apparent defect 'of iheVork. I While wishing that the work had been revised i by an English scholar before it was sent on its mission, as we?ead the chapter on the cultivation of pease, we could not help;?, smile coming • upon the countenance, when we were. informed that 'f emperors, duchesses, men, and animals were ridiculous . objects." The. author says, I "The garden' > varieties are endless, !and annually receive innumerable additions, ' and j bearing the names of emperors, duchesses, men, and other ridiculous objects." In the chapter on germination we read: "The seed which- is placed in the soil contains chiefly starch, -gluten and certain proportionate mineral substances, and so long as such condition and substances remain unchanged, in a secure air, heat, light, and moist excluded place, the vital spark, t ' ingenite,' which exists in all perfect seeds, remains dormant, but in' equal force." We know there are very many intelligent farmers in New Zealand who have not had the advantage of a technical education, and will consequently find it difficult to make < out what the author means 'in this passage. A writer on practical farming , for New Zealand should be familiar 'with the every day expressions of the farming population, and without lowering" 1 the science of agriculture, seek to express himself in understood terms. So many technical phrases, in any work of the kind to which we now refer, form a barrier between the author and the reader. Those who are at present engaged in farm work, and should be readers of a " New Zealand Practical Agriculturist," in this case,"might finditnecessary to consult a dictionary of no common order before he could know the meaning of the words used. In the chapter on rye we read :— " The chief generic distinction between' rye and wheat consists in the two glumes or outer chaff of the spikelets of the former being bristly or awl-shaped, while those of the latter are large and valved." A botanist may underj stand this, and those. fortunate young men who are, being trained iri the Canterbury College ; but we think the majority of settlers will ,firid j it hard to comprehend. Our author is not ' alone in the use of many technical terms. In the Home Country the same thing occurred, as many our readers will know. An attempt that is completely successful has been made to remedy this in consequence of of its being found that so many farmers turned aside from the study of improved methods of' farming in consequence of tho use of too many scientific towns in books professing to bo | entirely practical. Tho Government employ ; professors to impart instruction in practical 1 farming, not only by compelling the pupils to do farm work, but also by the uso of familiar terms. Here is an example taken from one of the latest published works on farm practice. A sensible teacher and a farmer wero engaged in conversation about phosphates, and an attempt was being made to show how phosphates were reduced, and what was the difference in their mammal value. A third pei'son was present, to whom the farmer said, " Now, Mr Robinson, you are a bit of a chemist, I believe, and you are fresh from college lectures. What do you say?" Robinson said Professor Grrimshaw explained it very simply by showing tetra-hydric calcic diphosphate could under certain circumstances take the form of dihydric dicalcic diphosphate, and this accounted for the reduced phosphate. The farmer replied— " That may be a very clear explanation to you, but I cannot say that I

quite understand it. You know lam a plainspoken man, and I don't pretend to know the language in which you are talking. Is the English language too poor to find words to explain the matter?" When scientific terms have 'to be used, as they frequently must, an explanation suited to the training of the supposed reader should be made. If this had been done in the book before us, we feel sure that it would have met with a much larger circulation than in its present form it is likely to do. We sincerely regret this because there is so much in it that is useful. These explanations could have been given without enlarging the work and increasing its expense, by eliminating some of the sentences which are rendered unnecessary by former expressions. In nearly every chapter we find some such sentence as the folio wing :— " The proper selected seeds for sowing are more fully doscribod under the head of germination." In the botanical descriptions wo find a great deal of repetition. Thus on page 151 -wo haye 1 these sentences: "This plant is another valuable fodder-plant of the leguminous class""; "The sainfoin is another of the members of the order legumiuosoe." i

We would recommend as a more suitable title for the work, "A description of the plants of the farm, and how to grow them." This, we think, would convey to an English reader the contents of the work more clearly than the present title does. Making due allowance for the apparent difficulty, the author has had in expressing himself clearly to an English mind, we unhesitatingly say the descriptions are good. While there is much in the book of a practical character^ and by the way of a methodical character,' which if followed and made the routine of the farmer's life', wtold make him a wiser and wealthier man, there are several statements about which the farmer must use his own judgment. Thus, on. page 10 we are told " That artificial manures' should be as much as possible avoided, unless the fields are good conditioned, and then it should only be sparingly supplied and with the knowledge of its agency being required to produce a perfect and productive crop." Further on, when speaking of lucerne, the writer says : "No more invigorating substance can be used to enhance the growth than sulphate of lime (gypsum). The quantity per acre is from half a ton to a ton." In speaking' of ipotatoea we are advised by the author to dress the land with from 30 to 40 tons of farmyard manure, and from three to five hundredweight of Peruvian guano. In another place we are told that artificials are simply solvents. Surely, if this is true, we have " made great mistake about artificial manures. We have always thought that to a large extent lime acted in some such way as a solvent, but we did not know that it was this alone, as well as all other artificials, .The readers of this book must not follow too closely the advice given, or they may have fields of weeds instead of corn. On pagel4s we read : " Neither do we hold with the strict injunction laid down to exterminate all weeds at once, knowing from experience that in fertilising soils they are a great necessity." We presume that the author means that weeds are not altogether an unmixed evil, for on page 175,' as -.elsewhere, we read: "In preparing the land,.Jfor lucerne, the greatest point of importance is tfie clearing the land of all weeds, which is '-pi primary im ] portance in perfect agriculture."'" We learn from the preface that the work is more of a compilation than an original production. Perhaps, if the writer had compiled less and composed more, there would have ' been fewer blemishes. We have already occupied more than our space at command, or we' should have ■said, something about autumn, cultivation, of which the writer says it is not necessary to sow wheat in autumn in, New Zealand! ■ Notwithstanding this error on the growth of wheat there atfe many valuable things said about it, which, if thoroughly incorporated! ' with ; the, , By stem of cultivation in this .country, willigreajbly add to the produce. ' We thank the author for his attempt to improve the farming ol'Ne'w Zealand, and hope he may meet with his reward. Wo join with him in asking the Government to come to our assistance in matters educational. Lincoba College, Canterbury, is a noble institution, and the Professors are doing a noble work, but we want' more' of the kind. If so much has been done without science, or with comparatively little aid from it, what would our position have been to-day had we created centres of scientific technical instruction, and centres for scientific agricultural education years ago.