FARMING AND MANURES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3822, 16 October 1936, Page 10

FARMING AND MANURES

VALUE NOT GENERALLY REALISED. Despite the enormous amount of research work that has taken place in regard to the substitution of artificial fertilisers for farmyard manure, there is still abundant evidence that the position affecting the use of farmyard manure is in no way disturbed so far as general agricultural practice is concerned. There is something in the nature of a safety factor about farmyard manure which is appreciated by all scientific investigators, and it is a recognised truth that in general practice the largest maximum consistent response has been obtained from a system of farming that combines the judicious blending of the natural farm by-product along with purchased artificials. Mistakes have been made in the past of too-frequently comparing farmyard manure solely on the basis of fertilising equivalents, without adequate allowance for its physical influence. One can easily understand the consequent viewpoint that farmyard manure is a relatively expensive product to handle and that on fertilising value artificials are much more economical dressing for the land. Acceptance of this at once overlooks the influence exercised by farmyard manure in directions that are not immediately linked up with the supply of essential plant foods, but which nevertheless have a very close bearing on the general topic of fertility. Dry summers have been specially valuable in attracting attention to some of the indirect virtues, if it was at all necessary to be reminded of them. Although there is a fairly general recognition of these good qualities, no one is particularly anxious to reestablish the practice of muck-mak-ing purely for the purpose of maintaining fertility. Fortunately, recent trends in farming practice suggest the position as regards muck-making is very adequately safeguarded by developments that have been taking place in the sphere of animal production. There has, too, been some adjustment of viewpoint as regards the main factor that, associated with farmyard manure, influence fertility of the land to which it is applied. Thus, in many cases economic necessity has led to the substitution of a dairy herd for the grazing land that was formerly stocked with fattening cattle, and utilisation of cow dung in place of that produced in the feeding yards, during winter. There are no really serious obstacles to this practice and there are considerable acreages of arable land that are depending on its muck supply from this source to-day.