NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS

Otago Witness, Issue 2250, 15 April 1897, Page 5

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS

An English professor of agricultural sciencsh&s aroused surprise and conaternaAutaniu tion in the minds of the farmers Manuring:, there by his remarks in a paper upon this subject read before the london FArmers' Club. The practice of carting oub the farmyard dung late in the autumn and ploughing ib into land intended for roots has become very general, not only because it has been found satisfactory from a mauurial pcict of view, but also because there is more tims to spare for such work in the autumn than during the rush of other work in the spring. Many farmers have been in the habit of saving the manure made in the winter for carting oub in the succeeding autumn, and were uuder the impression thab they were thereby making ths best use of the dung and also economising in the matter of labour. It seems, however, that Professor Somerville has besn experimenting with farmyard manure applied in the autumn, and his verdict is that "the dung which is applied in autumn suffers so-much during winter that it is able to offer the plants comparatively little nourishment when the root crop comes to occupy the ground. When artificials are added to "such impoverished dung the effect is very conspicuous, and this simply because the dung itself is little batter than no manure at all." This is a sweeping condemnation, and farmers •who have made large quantities of farmyard manure and applied it during the autumn are aghast at the thought of the amount of manure *nd labour they have wasted all these year3 — that is, if the professor is correct in his statements. I see, however, by IJorne papers, that this new doctrine is nob by any means accepted as gospel truth by experienced farmers. They want to know what becomes of ths virtue that was in the manure when applied. It is ploughed under and incorporated with the soil at a cool season of the year, sa that the valuable constituents cannot evaporate or pass into the air in the form of gas. If the winter rainfall be heavj, ib is possible that some waste occur* through a portion of the soluble parts being washed through the soil and into the drains, if there are any, but thab would only happen in a, light and porous soil, aad even in that case the loss cannot be- very considerable. But where the land is 6tiff and retentive, or the rainfall is not exceptionally heavy, the lors in this way c»n be only very trifling, and the question remains unanswered as to what becomes of the goodness of the manure if ib is really impoverished, as the professor says, by the time it is required for the rooti in springtime. Ib has been proved by experiments at Rotbamited and elsewhere that phosphates and potash are not washed out of the soils into drains duiing winter. Analysis of drainage water from land heavily dressed with yard maitawbtfr thown very little trace of the presence of these two valuable constituents, and therefero the farmers want to know more about

the matter bsfore they accept this new theory concerning autumn manuring. Scientific knowledge is very useful and desirable, but scientists are too prone to evolve theories from insufficient difcs, and practical common sense counts for something. This professor probably thinks tint his verdict is to be considered final and conclusive, wheD, perhaps, ib is the resulb of one set of experiments only, and is to condemu a practice that has long prevailed and has apparently proved satisfactorily. Colonial farmers will not be much disturbed at hearing of this new idea anvnt autumn manuring, fo." very few go iv for keep Joy cuougli stcck in sheds or yards to make a large bulk of strawmanure, and what i^ roadfi in this way is oftentime? spoiled before is is carted out to the land. Unless proper care i 8 taken of the manure ib is the better plan to cart it cut as soon as possible, for the probability is that when once ploughed in the loss of fertilising material will be very little compared with the waste by heating and loss by evaporating so loug as it is above ground. The comparative merits of new and rotted manure have been d'acussed in this column at different times in past years, and I shall have something more to say about it at a later date.