NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3115, 26 November 1913, Page 14

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

None of the various methods of planting potatoes approaches machine

Tlie Work of the Potato-planter.

work for getting over the ground or for efficiency. The work of the potato-planter has also this recommendation, that all the moisture required to start immediate growth is retained in the soil. Old-time methods of ploughing in iho sets or opening the drill with 5 mould-board plough, and then splitting them after planting to cover the

sets, arc quite superseded by the machine planter. , lu order to secure efficient work the seed must be free from haulms and picked for size. When all the sets are either small, medium, or large-sized, the machine may be sot to deal effectively with each size. When an attempt is made to plant them without picking over the haulms, jamb two or three sets together, and they are minced up by the feeding disc. When the seed is fairly even in size, the assistant’s work in regulating the delivery is easily overtaken. Under other circumstances this is not the case, and many spaces are missed or planted with double sets, so little time being available to adjust the seed on the revolving disc The machine is arranged eo that a circular coulter cuts the ground in the centre of the drill. This is followed by the drill plough, which opens most of the drill. The manure is then shot down and deposited before another leafed sock cleans out the bottom of the drill and deepens it to the required depth. Behind tnis the seed is delivered, and covered by two revolving discs, which leave a narrow drill behind them. The artificial manure is thus mixed with the soil to some extent before being drawn on top of the seed. Subsequent cultivation is more effective than with the split drill, because the ground is practically leve. I When weeds appear the drills are horse and hand hoed and moulded up deeply just before the potatoes appear above ground. The tops are rubbed off with the chain harrows, and later on the drills are backed 'up when the plants are small, after weeding if necessary. Ili:s is tollowed by a deep moulding up after the final hoeing.'

T hero is a considerable area of heavy clayland in the terraces boruering the alluvial Hats and in rolling country, which grows more than average crops when properly managed, but requires experienced handling. When ploughed the least bit too wet they pack, and the bad effect is not got rid of for several years. They get into a very retentive condition, and lie cold and unresponsive for a considerable part of the year. They generally lack humus or vegetable matter, and are therefore difficult to got into good physical condition, and are only maintained in that condition by’ special treatment. It is.generally contended that there is no use tiledraining such ground, and that it would not respond to such expenditure; but it has been proved conclusively that such is not the case. Tile drainage is expensive, and the outlay is not repaid in one year or in two. Grain crops and root crops are, however, improved to the extent of 20 per cent, to 30 per cent, by close tile-draining, while with the potato crop half the cost or more may be repaid in one year. On such soils tile drains are permanent, and if their cost is repaid in five years, the investment is the best the owner of the land can make. If the figures quoted are extended, it will be found that he will get anything from 25 per cent, to 50 per cent, interest for the money involved. Advantage is always taken of any leading depression for the main fine of tiles, and laterals run out from that cutting into all springs at their source, and crossing patches of low tableland which retain water and grow nothing but sedges and inferior vegetation. In some cases the tiles may bo run parallel from one end of the field to the other; but this is only possible on an even slope or on level ground. In addition, effective surface drainage is necessary to can-y off superfluous water, and prevent it from lodging. If narrow lands are ploughed and open furrows made and cut through the headland to an open ditch, very little surface water will collect on cultivated fields. In broken country it will be necessary to run small drains or wide, open furrow's following the linos of the natural drainage. Both surface work and tile-draining systematically done arc necessary to efficiency. It is important to remember that before flat clay lands can be farmed successfully, it is necessary to provide some practical system of dealing with surface water in addition to permanent tiles.

Working till)' l.aml.

After efficient drainage lias been supplied, cultivation of stiff land becomes easier; but the remark made as to ploughing wet land refers also to the use of any other implement in a minor degree. It is dangerous to touch such land with harrows or cultivator unless it is in good working order. The main requirements of clay land are vegetable matter or humus, and a supply of phosphoric acid, in which they arc generally deficient. The latter may bo supplied for every crop by the use of phosphatic fertilisers, while the supply of the former involves the growing and ploughing in of leguminous crops. Clover grows abundantly on clay land, and provides valuable fodder. It supplies a very largo amount of humus to the ground when ploughed in. It should therefore be utilised extensively in the rotation of the clay farm. A four-year course might bo established with advantage. Whatever grain is grown might be sown down with clover and a little timothy mixed in it. This might remain two years. Thus the rotation would provide clover hay and seed the first year and clover and timothy hay the .second. Green crop, either turnip, mangold, or potatoes, might intervene before another grain crop, sown out in the fourth year in th© same way. The abundance of residue which would be provided on the land would supply it with the requisite vegetable matter, and materially improve the physical condition and texture of the ground. Farmyard manure whenever" it was available would also help the same object, and a liberal treatment of the clover with basic slag would be well repaid. Humus supplied in th’s way provides the cheapest nitrogen l , which is specially rich in the tissues of leguminous plants like clover, lucerne, or vetches The turning under periodically of a clover sod is the surest way of getting it. While advocating the use'of clover for such land because it would be a profitable crop to have in every way, a liberal supply of phosphorus is also necessary to maintain fertility and grow the clover. Dairying or any live, stock-farming does not maintain the supply. It, is carried away in the hone of animals sold and in milk, and some of it is washed out by leaching. The return of the skimmed milk and the use of bran in feeding the stock helps to restore it; but grain crops suffer mainly for the want of it. Tsv the use of phcsnhati'o fertilisers it is possible to get as much out

Tlie X®( <ls of (.lay Land.

of grain-cropping as from milking cows, provided the supply of organic matter is maintained in the way indicated.

The plant used for ploughing in is red or broad clover, and the seed

Clover for Ploughing in.

should be carefully selected. Cowgrass or perennial red clover produces little seed from its single crop, whereas broad clover yields a good crop of seed from the second cutting alter the lirst has been taken for fodder. The groat root growth made during the two years of its existence is the best possible preparation for any wheat crop to follow. It contains so much moisture that only one-fifth of the weight of the green crop is found in the hay stack; tliciefore it decomposes rapidly m the ground. It is incapable of self-fertilisation, and no eeed was grown here till the introduction of the humble bee, which is almost exclusively the medium by which pollen is conveyed from anther to stigma. It pces.essea an enormous leaf surface, and forms laigo, fleshy roots, which penetrate deeply when the ground is free from stagnant water. It docs not attain full development without a good proportion of lime in the soil. '• hen sown in October or November on the straw crop it escapes danger from the frost, and gets well rotted before winter sets m. In this way it is not troublesome in the sheaf butts at harvest time, and after the crop is cut and its gets access to air and light it comes away rapidly. Timothy is mixed with it because this grass luxuriates in clay districts on moist soils, and attains the height of its productiveness in the first and second year of its growth. The two cuttings of clover prevent it from seeding (luring the first year, and during the second it adds materially to the weight of the hay crop A marked characteristic of the plant ia its extreme hardness in all climates. It won favour in Scotland, where it is grown with nlsiko, and the resulting hay proved highly sustaining food for horses in hard work. The feeding value in its case increases till seed is formed, and it docs not flower till February, so that the clover can be cut when it is ready. It is fibrousrooted, and adds materially to the humus content of the soil when ploughed in.

A demonstration in dry spraying, which is quite the latest develop-

* D o 't mont in potato-growing, was Sprnjing-. reported in the North British Agriculturist. The material sprayed consists of a mixture of sulphate of copper and other ingredients precipitated to secure sufficient fineness of division. This mixture is forced from the machine in tho form of a misty cloud, which penetrates in all directions, and is said to get better under the leaves than the liquid spray oven at high pressure, while the dry spray is much more easily handled. After spraying the field presented a greyish, dusty appearance sometimes seen on the side of a street much frequented by motor ears. Fifteen acres per day could be sprayed, and tho labour was very much less than with Bordeaux mixture. The cloud of dust could be directed so ns to reach the extreme end of tho drills. The cost amounted to 22s to 23s per acre. It was thought that tho stimulation resulting from spraying would enable tho older varieties of potatoes to resist disease for a much longer period. The American dust-spraying machines have a greater capacity than that mentioned. For orchard work or root crops they cover from 15 to 60 acres daily. Tho smallest has ample power to spray any ordinary sized trees from the ground, and is driven by hand. The field outfits are mounted on waggons, and driven by a 1) lo 2 h.p. oil engine. They consist essentially of a fan enclosed in castings which drives a blast, .-if air through a Sin or 4in duct into which tho material falls from a small hopper through a patent feeder. The duct is fitted with a patent nozzle, and delivers a cloud of dust which envelops several trees. It is claimed for this system that although tho same remedial agents are employed—viz., bluestone. lime, and paris green, they are unaltered by chemical action on each other, and are therefore more effective than when applied in a liquid form, and that there is no danger to tho foliage from amateur mixing. ’l’ho material may no mixed ready for use beforehand and loaded on a dray along with the spraying outfit in sufficient quantity to treat 25 acres in half a day. The same formula may bo used on anything that grows without danger. The cost is reduced to a minimum, and if the crops or trees be repeatedly treated and kept covered with bluestone dust, some portion of which is dissolved with every dew or shower that falls, no other fungicide ia required cither in the potato field or orchard. AGRICOLA.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. By Agkicola. “Farmer,” Southland, writes:—“l have about 1000 acres of hilly country in fern ready to burn, and I shall bo obliged if you could inform mo, through your inquiry column, what you consider is the l>est time to burn it for surface sowing. It is el! good growing grass country, and sorno opinions are that it is best to burn in the autumn and have the benefit of the winter frosts, and sow in soring, .voile rubers consider it best to sew immediately after burning.” It is very <HRci;!t- to indicate what s the best time to bum for surface sowing m sny particular .octiity. There is no use attempting it unless there is enough mois-

ture in the soil to germinate the seed. All along the const there should be no difficulty at any time except in the height of summer. The danger on schist country or on any thin layer of soil on which heavy fern is growing and which lies away from the sun, is that the tremendous heat of the fire will so affect the land that-cohesion in it is lost, and no grass will subsequently grow on it. Such land should only bo burned when there is enough bottom moisture on the ground to save the soil. 44 hen repeatedly burned in the height of summer such land will grow nothing till cultivated or clothed with native vegetation for years. When burned as stated the existing vegetation rapidly comes away green again, and the land is no worse. When a tire rages through 6ft or Bft of fern in the height of summer nothing will grow on it afterwards. The writer has endeavoured time after time to got a bit of 'cocksfoot under such circumstances, sown on the ashes, and failed every time. Caro should therefore be taken to burn all the land which is not presently to be surface sown if it requires burning, even in autumn or winter, whenever an opportunity presents itself—i.o., when the fern is dry enough to burn but there is moisture enough in the land to save it from incineration. I have dwelt on this point because it is one of the most important, in securing a sole of grass by surface sowing. On the other hand, excellent results on faces lying well to the sun have been obtained by burning and surface sowing early in spring, say in August. The host results of all—the permanent clothing with a good solo of cocksfoot which has killed out fern and tussock —has been obtained by locking up the land after sowing it for two years— i.e., till the cocksfoot takes root, seeds, sheds its seed, and that seed gets established before stock is put on it. This involves some subdivision, but in the writer’s case was very effective and well worth the money spent. A 200-acre field well covered with grass is not too small an enclosure for economical working. Surface sowing is a very precarious business at any time, and sometimes the work and seed are lost, after every precaution possible has born taken, by adverse weather conditions. But when two or three weeks of growing weather, with nice showers, not too heavy, settle the ashes and seed hard down on the ground, success usually follows if time is permitted to establish itself. ‘‘Reader” asks: —“I have a paddock of oats sown down in last year’s turnip land. When ploughing I turned down a lot of turnips. Now they have sprung up and arc in flower. If not pulled or cut down will tho seed turn wild and bo a pest for years afterwards?” Many of our cultivated plants like the turnip and parsnip are biennials—that is, plants which do not flower in the first season of their growth, but flower and bear fruit in the second year, and then die. But when early sowing, as with a grain crop, warm weather, etc., promotes earlier development of the flowering stem (hey may become annual. If. on the other hand, the flowering of the plant is prevented, or if it is prevented from ripening its seed, it will continue to live and thrive for a much longer period than two years. Your turnips are in their second year, and will very likely seed in your grain, if not pulled, and fill your ground with seed, which would lie in the ground for many years until it was again cultivated. Thov would revert eventually to their wild state. If anv plants slid not seed the stock would prevent them from seeding, but they might survive the subsequent cultivation ami seed afterwards. CANTERBURY MARKETS, CHRISTCHURCH GRAIN AND PRODUCE REPORTS. (Lyttelton Times, November 22.) Business in grain and produce is practi<«illy at a standstill as a result of shipping complications, the trade that is being done being of a hand-to-mouth character. Inquiries have come to hand from various parts of the North Island and the West Coast, but in the absence and uncertainty of shipping it has been found impossible to negotiate for sales. Farmers’ lines cf wheat and oats are coming forward very sparingly, and at the moment, while wheat is firm at unchanged prices, the oat market is far from active—indeed, the present tendency is downwards. Some potatoes continue to bo placed on offer every week, but the volume is gradually being reduced, and some merchants have already discontinued purchasing. There would probably bo an outlet in the North Island for limited consignments, but shipping facilities being absent, nothing is being done with overseas markets. Prices are nominally unchanged. The following quotations are for purchases from farmers, net cash, sacks extra, delivered at country stations: Wheat. —Tuscan 3s 5d to 3s 6d, Hunters 5s 8d to 3s 9d, Pearl 3s 9d to 3s lOd. Oats. —Cartons 2s Id to 2s 2d, Duns Is lOd to 2s Id, Danish Is 9d to 2s 2d, Algerian Is lid to 2s Id. Barley.—Malting 3s 6d to 3s 9d per bushel, according to quality. Partridge Peas. —3s 4d to 3s sd. Chaff. —£3 7s 6d to £3 10s. Potatoes. —£'■ to £1 Ss. Flour. —£9 per ton. 100!b bags £9 10s, £olb bags £9 15s, 251 b bags £lO. Bran. —Local £4 ss, f.o.b. £4. Pollard.—£6 per ton. Oatmeal. —£14 per ton Seeds.—Ryegrass (Italian and perennial), machine dressed parcels, 3s 3d to 3s 9d;

cocksfoot, 131 b seed 3£d to 33-d; white clover, machine-dressed lid to 13d, farmdressed 7d to lOd, cowgrass 7d to Bd. Dairy Produce. —Cheese, dairy, largo sid, loaf 6d; factory, large 5Jd to 6d. Butter, fresh local factory prints Is Id, farmers’ separator 9d, farm dairy Bd. Hams Is, sides 9£d, rolls rolled hams lid; lard, pate Hid. Eggs lOd to Hd per dozen.