GREEN MANURING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2862, 20 January 1909, Page 6

GREEN MANURING.

In the coming autumn, when, if present conditions continue, there will be more grass than can be consumed by the largest quantity of stock with which it would be prudent to face the winter, the opportunity should be embraced of ploughing down the surplus veijeTation as green manure. The object of green manuring is to increase the ttore of humus in the soil, vhich cannot be accomplished by the application of artificial fertilisers. A green crop ploughed down is but a poor rsub&titute for thi* purpose for farmyard manure, but it forms a #ood foundation for artificial manures ; and as the farmyard manure is a very scarce article in colonial practice, the subsitute is vaJuable, and should be utilised to a much greater extent and more systematically thau- at present. A green crop in which clover is an important constituent will when ploughed in add a very appreciable quantity of nitrogen to the soil, in addition to* that which has been fixed by the roota, and the succeeding cereal and potato crops particularly will benefit by the increase of plant food available for them. The other fertilisers — phosphatic amd potasMC — jnc 1 lime will Ibe added according to the ne^uLrements of the particular soil and the crop which it is intended to grow. In many countries crops are grown piimarily for the purpose of green manuring, mustard, clove* , and certain other legumes being the most ueeful. These crops often serve a double purpose, providing good feed for sheep in an autumn of scarcity, and afterwards being ploughed in.