FARMING SYSTEM.

Otago Witness, Volume 02, Issue 2420, 2 August 1900, Page 5

FARMIN G SYSTEM.

■ Discussions have been rife in British agricultural journals of late on." some remarkable results following phosphatic manuring for wheat and other grain crops, which, some -have considered to call in question the -validity of the rule laid down long ago by Jie late Mr Pusey — " Nitrogen for corn, phosphates for roots." If Mr Pusey only meant to imply that nitrogen is the dominant manure foi corn, as phosphates have been proved to be for turnips and ether root crops, it does nothing 'of Jie kind. Agricultural chemistry has made some remarkably advances since Mr Pusey propounded this axiom ; but it was, of course, well known to him that all plants require, more or less, other mantixial elements than those he prescribed foi their food. The scientific plot experiments at Rothanisted and Woburn prove very forcibly and clearly the point that phosphates and nitrogen combined are always necessary to be present in the soil itself, or if not to be supplied by nianurings, to ensure good crops.

Wheat and barley, as a rule, answer best ■when there is so much of this latent fertility already- in the soil, the l&gacy of previous heavy crop manurings and good management, that no artificial manuring of any kind is needed to supply direct. To naturally rich and highly fertilised lands, it may almost be admitted that a direct application of phosphate is likely to be' innocuous, while that of nitrogen might in a ■wet summer prove harmful in causing the crop to be prematurely laid before ripening. But by far the majority, of British farmers are prone to manure too little rather than too much, and they frequently fall into 1 the common error of stimulating an indifferent wheat plant in the spring by a dose of nitrate of soda alone, when it requires superphosphate as well. The nitrate stimulates the plant into lavish growth, and if there were sufficient superphosphate in the noil for its after needs, would prove preeminently beneficial, but when there is not, blight ensues, and the manure' gets wrongfully the blame.

A most valuable suggestion recently made, as to how a very large class of English farmers can best adapt themselves and their general management to the changed circumstances of the times, is that of Lord Rookwood, to" the effect that if the grass layer ' of arable farms in general were prolonged to three, -four, or even half a dozen years, the corn crops -would, come less freqxiently, thereby causing an immense saving both in horses and manual labour, and dairying might be profitably added to the corn-growing industry. This is,- of course, only what those accustomed to look beneath the mere surface of things have "been declaring again and again during the last 20 years ; but it is satisfactory to find the ■wise counsel revived, and have countenance imparted to it by a nobleman -of .the infhi'.■}nce of Lord Rookwood. The Earl 'of Leijestjsr told the Norfolk farmers the seventies that if they did not alter materially '1/heir course of cropping they woiild be sure to -ruin themselves. He did not preach what he was not prepared himself to practice. The Holkham Holm Farm .was placed under the prolonged grass layer system, sheep husbandry being ma"de to supersede com growing to a very large extent. The generality fcf Norfolk farmers still- continued in their old courses to their Qvm great detriment,; faMling Lord Lei-

cester's prediction. They gaA'e a full estimate of their losses a few years since, under the impression that their magnitude might induce the Legislature to, change or deviate somewhat from the free trade system. But they were told that to do this would be an impossibility. The only possible remedy for the evils which so sorely beset them was to change their cropping and management in the way Lord Leicester counselled, and Lord Rookwood now recommends. If they had done this in the seventies they would have been far richer men now.