To Manure Manufacturers and Agents. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2104, 21 June 1894, Page 12

To Manure Manufacturers and Agents. TO THE EDITOR.

Srn, — I have read with a very great deal of pleasure in your columns the accounts of the Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Society's winter show, and consider great credit is due to the gentlemen under whose auspices it was conceived and carried to a successful termination ; and the fact of my having had some small acquaintance with agriculture and agricultural shows in theoarlier days of my life will, I hope, be accepted as my excuses for in some measure criticising in a friendly spirit one portion of the show. I know the difficulties that will surround my suggestions, but still they are to a certain extent to be overcome. In the class roots, &c, more particularly turnips and mangels, as I take it, a sackful of each is no criterion as to the excellence of the crop — in fact, rather the contrary. Let me state a case : A has 20 acres of turnips that have been wellcultivated and the land kept reasonably free from weeds, and say this crop in the case of swedes will average 35 tons per acre and common 25 tons. B has 20 acres of turnips adjoining A's which has not been so well cultivated, neither ia the land so free from weeds, and as a consequence the swede will only average 20 tons per acre and common 15 tons. Supposing exhibits from each of those two 20 acres of turnips are forwarded, I would ask what would the judge or judges know about the excellence or otherwise of the crop from which the exhibits were taken ? Further, I hold that it is more than probable that from the lowest crop per Acre the best and largest samples could b9 collected, seeing that the thinner the crop the larger the bulb is likely to become, and trom such large aud shapely roots could be selected. More particularly would this be the case if the owner sowed seed grown from transplanted roots, and the other from roots tbat were not transplanted. I am aware that it would not be reasonable for judges to travel all over Otago and Southland to judge all areas entered, neither do I think the asscciation could well limit the distance around Dunedin for entries ; bub I think there -is a way out of the difficulty, and with your permission I will point it out. It is a wellknown fact that turnip-growing cannot be a success without artificial manure, and, seeing that we have several manufacturers in our midst and a number of agents for foreign companies, I think each should subscribe a sum to be expended in the purchase of a cup to be competed for, say, within a distance of 30 miles of Dunediu. As a matter of course, the expense per acre would have to be given ; but this and other conditions could be easily arranged if the manufacturers and agents couli agree among themselves to subscribe to a fund for this object. Failing this, I would suggest to individuals interested in the sale of manures to give prizes for root cropß grown by the use of certain manures. I can remember when guano and superphosphates were first used in England that prizes were given for turnips grown by artificial manures alone*. I have competed, and in doing so grow two acres with guano, two with superphosphate, two with bouedust, and two acres with lime and duDg — a like amount of money expanded on tach two acres, and all adjoining each other. The two acres with superphosphates came away very fast — in fact, outstripped the other three — but after a time the guano had all the best of it, and produced fully five tons per acre more than either of the others ; super second, lime and dung third, bone fourth. The quality of the land was good light — what is known in England as barley and turnip land. Other societies could do likewise.

If not asking for too much space, I should like to draw the association's attention to what I consider a fact (it may not be in the settled districts, but here it is) — i.e., that the sieve is seldom if ever used, and that the nexb genera-

tion will know l,itfcle or nothing about its use. In our fatherland the sieve is extensively used in hand-cleaning small seeds and corn, particularly so with wheat when at «all sprouted, also in cleaning ryegrass, in which more weeds are sown than with any other seeds. No doubt a very great many will laugh at the idea of handcleaning anything in these days of machinery, but I can assure them that I believe the next generation will grist a very great deal of the seconds wheat and convert it into bread for the use of the household, and I assert that the seconds wheat, cleaned by hand with the sieve, will make quite as good flour as the firsts, as I will defy any machinery to clean wheat as well as it can be done with the hand by sieving. I can remember the time when I could bring a sixpence placed in a sieve of wheat from the bottom to the top. I would suggest that a prize should be given at the next show of, say, £5 to the best rivier, to be competed for by farmers and their sons only. Should anyone think this hint worthy of consideration and will move in the matter, I shall willingly give 10a towards the £5. — I am, &c , John Cole Chapple. AUandale, Opbir, June 18.