NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 5

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

The last quarterly number of the Journal of *'° Royal Agricultural So- * TJie R.A.5. cicty of England has just arJournal. rived, and I find it to be fully up to the usual standard, and in accord with the m«Ho. "Practice with Science." The chief articles of interest in this number are "The Mpro and ; Foal," by Professor Wortley Axe; " The : Source of Milk Fat," by Professor R. War- ' rington ; and "The Growth of Sugar-beet in the United Kingdom," by Messrs Lawes and Gilbert. There is also the full report of the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis, of which 1 gave the gist some weeks ago. On reading the complete report, I see that those of the Commissioners who favoured giving compensation for diseased animals destroyed thought that one-half should be paid out of the rates, and the other paid by the Slate. The article upon "The Mare and Foal" has a number of illustrations showing various ' forms of posterior or breech presentations j and anterior presentations. In dealing -\vith the management of in -foal mares, the writer says that a considerable percentage of the j ' sickness and mortality ordinarily prevailing , in bleeding studs results from causes of a common and preyentablo character, the most usual of which is undue feeding and pam- ! pering in the course of a mare's show career, j He says it would be strange if the foal did j not suffer, from every organ of the mare being encumbered with fat, and impeded in ' function to the verge of disease. Every 1 breeder should know that nothing conduces j so much to the production of strong, healthy, j offspring as a reasonable amount of work. ! ; The risk of employing pregnant animals in ' farm work is far out-weighed by the bene- j ' fits conferred on both dam and foal. j By the last papers (July 25) received from the old country, I see that j British the farming reports from all '. Farm Prospects, the country districts give a ' most glowing account of the crop prospects, which in most cases are said to be much above the average. The cereals, roots, aud th%hay are all most satisfactory, and unless some unforeseen calamity over- J takes the crops before harvest, the yield of ! grain will be excellent. Wo growl about the j uncertainty of our New Zealand climate, but j the British climate can also play some queer j pranks in the way of gales, storms, hail, ; &c. Last year the county of Essex was visited just before harvest by a most destructive thunderstorm, which beat down tho green J crops so that they could not ripen, and j threshed the ripe crops as they stood. These sort of visitations are, however, generally local, and limited to a comparatively small area ; therefore, notwithstanding any damage that may be done in that way in various parts of the Kingdom bcfoie the crops are secured, it is quite certain that British farmers have a good time before them, and, in a way, their gain will be our lof-s, as there will bo a decrease in the importations necessary to make up the country's requirements. I Not only was the hay crop heavy, but the woathcr was very favourable for the work of haymaking, and that is rather a rare combination of good luck for British farmers. 1 think we at this side of the jyorld may take courage and be hopeful of a good season.

too, as it often happens that the season here seems to lake its cue from the same preceding season in Britain, and I sincerely hope it may prove to be the case this year. 4fc all events I don't grudge them their good luck, and hope to hear next mail that favourable weather continued throughout the hay and harvest season.

A good many fanners are still holding their wheat, and are also "whipKeepiiig Pro- p i n g the cat" for not having perUesof Wheat, sold it when the price was; ranging between 4s and 5s j per bushel. It is very easy to be wise after the event, and those of us who happened to have sold before the market turned on the | down grade must not take too much credit for being wiser than our brethren. While the market price of any commodity is rising, and reports are flying about that the price will reach so-and-so, people are apt to get a litle excited, and are afraid to sell at, say, is 6d for fear that the price should go to *s 9d soon after. I have hopes of the price improving before any new wheat is available in this colony. There are six months yet before wheat can be threshed in any quantity, md unless the market is kept down by importations of new wheat from Australia, I think the local demand will send up the pi ice igain. I have, however, ran away from ray text, svhich is the keeping properties of wheat, md these depend a great deal upon the natural constitution of the grain of the different varieties. Wheat of any kind that has been tvell matured, well ripened, and well harvested will, of course, keep belter than soft, ;lamp wheat, as this is always susceptible to climatic and atmospheric changes, and is the I [irst to go wrong. But no matter how dry and hard and well harvested wheat may be, it is all affected, more or less, by a succeeding clamp, foggy autumn and a wet winter. That, however, which was harvested in good order will -etarn to its original good condition when dry, hot weather sets in, v.hile the soft, damp grain will not improve, but will probably go from bad to worse. 11 has been femd, to 3, that wheat v/hich has once been damp, no matter whether or not it Las ' been artificially dried, is far more Jikely to j be affected by moisture than well-harves'ed ' grain. In some of our late-ripening wheat in J Southland too much soluble gluten is pro- | iuced, which is really undeveloped, unripened ' matter, and wheat in that state cannot make good flour, nor can it be kept for any length I Df time without deteriorating. It is a fact, liowever, that though we sometimes get a flamp and sunless summer and autumn, our srain; however soft and immature it may be when harvested, is not influenced by the state I Df tho weather after it is thiesh'ed to anything J like the same extent that appears to be the i 3ase in Britain. There the dampness is more ponetraling, and also more lasting without 3, spell of dry and sunny weather.

A Wendon farmer asks for information about rye. I have frequently dealt About with this subject fully durEje Corn. ing the years that I have been furnishing these notes on .ural topics, but I have not the slightest objection to go over the same ground again, be3ause I know that, the Witness is constantly gaining new subscribers and aiore readers, ;herefore what may appear repetition to some tvill perhaps be acceptable to more recent adlitions to the number of the readers of these lotes. There is only one species of,rye, and ivvo or three varieties. It belongs to the same Drder as all the cereals and grasses (Gramine<e), xnd has naked seeds — that is, with no chaff or husks — on a flat ear with beards ! similar to those of barley. The straw is not I juite hollow and tubular like that of other j jrain, but is lined almost to the centre with ' 1 sort of pith, which makes it very stiff and J ;viry, and on that account it is considered ] superior to other straw for litter and for | stuffing horse collars, &c. Rye corn is dark | :n colour, and very hard, and under favour- j ible conditions the straw grows to a great \eielif and often gets twisted and tangled, so thai tho reaper has some troiible in parting ;he sheaves. It can be sown in the autumn, ivintcr, or spring. If sown thickly early in :he autumn on a fairly warm soil, it will \ive a good bite of green food for sheep in the spring, and can then be saved for a crop if desired, or it can be allowed to grow a foot liigh and then be ploughed in for green .nanure. A peculiarity of this crop is that ju a poor soil it will grow to a greater leight and give a better yield than other jereal crops would in the same soil. "Wenlon Farmer" should sow before the end of .his month or early in October, and allow ;rom 1$ to 2 bushels of seed per acre, the forner quantity if drilled, and the latter if broadcasted. There is very little flag or leaf ;o rye straw, which is nearly the same size i,hroughout ; therefore the sheaves are apt to be very slippery and difficult to stack, as compared with those of other grain.

[11 the latest volume of the Transactions of the Highland and AgrieulAualysis of tural Society, Dr Bernard Soils. Dyer contributes a valuable paper on the analysis of soils. Pile recent pronouncement of Professor Urookes that the world's wheat supply cannot be maintained without restoring nitrogen to the soil lends a new interest to the ques- ] tion of soil analysis. Dr Dyer says it is ex- ' aclly 25 years ago sinco he began to analyse soils under the_ guidance of the late celebrated agricultural scientist, Dr Voelcker. Although ha did not attain eminence ip the wadd of

science generally, the value of his work in agricultural chemistry and investigation will always make the name of Dr Voelcker a nama to conjure witb in agricultural science. Aa a young man, Dr Voelcker -amo from Germany to Scotland as assistant to Professor Johnston, at a time when agricultural chemistry appealed to very few farmers ; and it was nofc very long before Voelcker came to be recognised as the pioneer of that important science in the United Kingdom. One of the subjects oil "vhich he .vas never quite satisj fied was the maintenance of the world's supply of nitrogen. Although orthodox scientists had dogmatised on the subject, and maintained that atmospheric nitrogen was nonassimilable by plants, Voelcker xhvays held that there was something or other we had nofc taken into account in analytical tests. That ho was on the right track the discoveries of HellnegeJ and Wilfarh have fully demonstrated, but unfortunately Voelcker did not live to tee his dream realised. As the pupil of the celebrated agricultural scientist, Dr Dyer devoted a large portion of his time to soil analysis. Although much of the investigation carried on was instructive, the results were to a great extent disappointing. In a paper published exactly 20 years ago "On the Influence of ChemicaJ Discoveries on the Progress of English Agriculture," Dr Voelcker wrote: — "At one time both farmers and chemists thought analysis would solve all the difficulties which practical men met in cultivating soils of low fertility, the occupier of which experiences much disappoint jnent by his frequent failure to raise remunerative crops upon them." But further experience proved that the mere enumeration of tho constituents of tho soil did not assist the farmer much in the improvement of his soil, nor inform him how it was that je could mfc glow certain crops on certain soils.

There aro miiny apparently similar soils, which analysis sho^rs to conSoil tain like proportions of pofcConstitucuts. ash, soda, lime, magnesia, phobphoric, sulphuric, and silicic acids, etc., and yet when manured and cultivated under similar conditions, produce a good result in one case and an unfavourable one in the other. Analysis of soils is, therefore, often disappointing in its oonclusions and practical bearings. For instance, a soil determined by analysts to contain 0.1 per cent, of phosphoric acid, measured over an acre to a depth of from 6in to 9in, would contain one ton of phosphoric acid, or equal to from seven to eight tons of ordinary superphosphate. And yet on such a soil experience has shown that a few hundredweights of superphosphate applied at the proper time make all the difference between a good and a bad turnip crop. Herman yon Liebig, son of the well-known professor of that name, has investigated the matter, and attempted to distinguish between the total and the available potash in certain of the Rothamsted wheat soils ; but not witb much success. Some of the experiences of thp later investigators are curious. Certain soils in a district in France wero found to contain about the average of phosphoric acid, yet phosphated manures had no effect. The soil was cropped for 11 years without manure, after which time a moderato dressing of phosphate manure trebled the yield of wheat. The merest trace of phosphoric acid was left in the soi -after the 11 years' cropping, and before the application of the phosphate manure, although it contained what might be considered a fair amount before the cropping. The rational conclusion is that while the wheat had the supply of natural phosphates in the soil, the addition of phosphates in manure did little or no good. In some soils, however, the'phosphates are less soluble under natural conditions, and although the soil contains an'average quantity, it is not available for plant food. In such case, a dressing of caustic lime is the very best solvent, and that is one of the chief reasons why lime adds so enormously to the fertility of certain soils for a time, until the natural plant food becomes exhausted, when, of course, special manuring must b«> resorted to.

The general conclusion Dr Dyer arrives a% from years of experimenting Phosphoric is that a soil containing as Acid. little as .01 per cent, of available phosphoric acid might be regarded as needing phosphate manure. Thousands of experiments have been conducted ta determine the difference between the total soil constituent of phosphoric acid and that available as plant food, and for the present the phosphoric acid soluble in a 1 per cent, solution of citric acid is taken to be the amount available. -The residuum, soluble only in strong mineral acids, is considered not available. The results of experiments at Jlothamsted with manuring for 50 years, and the determination of percentage of phosphono acid, are tabulated. The table is highly instructive, but is rather too technical for reproduction in this column. The wheat yields are the soil barometer which show the value of certain manures. Soil cropped and immauuved continuously yielded 13| bushels to the acre, with 9fcwl of straw. This soil contained only a very small percentage of phosphoric acid, as might reasonably be supposed — ■ .007 per cent. Another plot unmanured since 1852 showed results very nearly the same as regards yield, but the percentage of phosphoric acid was considerably higher. Manuring with ammonia salts increased the wheat yield to 17£ bushels, with 14cwt of straw, but without altering the percentage of phos- • phoric acid to any appreciable extent. When. eunsrpb,QEpb.ate9 and alkaline salts w«r« used

without nitrogenous manures, the percentage of phosphates was considerably increased, but there was very little increase in the wheat yield. And so on through a series of interesting and instructive experiments. Agbicola.