SOIL ANALYSIS

Southland Times, Issue 18971, 19 June 1923, Page 6

SOIL ANALYSIS

NO PRACTICAL VALUE. .“Make no mistake,” said Mr R. B. Tennent, when addressing a gathering of farmers at Winton plot on Wednesday, “the Department does not analyse soils except for lime. Soil analysis are of no practical value and will not tell you what manures to apply.” Continuing, he said that the chemist when he analysed a soil could find out how much phosphate, nitrogen, and potash it contained, but he could not tell how much of those ingredients were available in the soil as plant food. An analysis of Southland soils would show that they contained sufficient plant food to grow 100 crops of wheat, but the farmer could not get those 100 crops simply because the food was not available for the plant. The only way to ascertain what a soil required was by experiments, and that they would have to conduct on their own farms. This was the only way they could prove conclusively what manures their soils required. The Department undertook to analyse soils to ascertain how much lime they required, and this was the only soil analysis that was of value to the fanner. “Make no mistake,” he concluded, “soil analysis will not tell you what manures to apply.”