FARM NOTES.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXI, 13 August 1921, Page 7

FARM NOTES.

SOIL ANALYSIS. NOT A COMPLETE GUIDE TO FERTILITY’. There is still current among many farmers an idea that the analysis of their soils will supply an infallible guide to requirements in the way of fertilitera. For the last half of the nineteenth century this was the view held by many scientists. The reasoning was simple, says the Sydney Morning Herald. Analysis showed" in the case of, say, a wheat soil in the Kivenna, that it contained 113 per cent), of phosphoric acid. In a soil six inches deep this would amount to between. 2600 and 27001 b. A 30-bushel crop of wheat, an admittedly heavyyield, will remove during its period of growth something like 211 b of phosphorio acid, and apparently there is sufficient in the class of land referred to for about 130 successive crops. Experience in Australia has shown that even in a soil which lias been found by analysis to contain ample supplies of phosphoric acid the addition of even 561 b of super has given marked' increase in yield.

The sa.me‘ conclusion has been forced on many of the maize growers. On alluvial soils of the richest type from a chemical standpoint, highly profitable i"cturns have resulted from comparatively small quantities of fertiliser. Tlie idea that the physical character of the soil had as much to do with the fertality as its chemical content is largely' the creation of the twentieth century. Field experiment experiment showed that the-crucible was not the true measure of productivity. However rich in essential plant-food materials a soil may be, it is now fully recognised that it is not fertile unless these aro available to the crop. All the food of plants is taken by them in the form of liquids or of gases, and hence the fertility of soil must be determined by the rate at which plant iood may be dissolved in the soil water at the time the crops are growing. Thia availability is largely governed by the proportion of water and air in the soil, and thus the farmer by his methods of cultivation may keep it largely under his control. Soil analysis has been to somei extent credited by the fact that it is frequently very difficult to get a really representative soil sample, as there are often comparatively wide variations within narrow limits. Accidental variations, due to the burning of a tree during clearing or the rotting of <t carcase may unduly raise the quantity of plant food material in the sample, and thus prove misleading. On the coast particularly it .is unusual to get even 10 acres of soil suitable for experiment purposes, as can be easily proved by carefully scrutinising a crop grown under uniform conditions and noting the differences. Every farmer then must be to a large extent his own experimenter. Small test plots treated with different fertilisers will often prove a mud). better guide than alt the soil analysis. Closely following the results of the nearest experiment plots conducted by the Department of Agriculture will prove of very material assistance, but where time can bo spared a few comparative trials on the property itself, especially over a series of years, will indicate in the most effective way the true productive capacity of the farm.

Evidently South Africa is now a serious competitor in the London fruit market. In a report by F. W. Moore and Co., of London, dated May 12, that firm remarks: —Up to date prices and demand are keeping amazingly good; pears not quite so well as apples, due to the fact that the markets do not call for such big quantities of pears, and have also to deal with a large shipment from South Africa, which opened up much fresher and cleaner than the Australian and Tasmanian.” The same merchants state that fairly large supplies of apples were received from Canada and the U.S.A., but not up to the usual quality and condition, and when the Australian fruit season opened, goodconditioned apples sold well.” The assistant manager of the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, Waikato, states that the output of his company for the year ended May 31 was valued at 4| millions sterling, and comprised 12,660 tons of butter, 5673 tons of cheese, 485 tons of casein, 500 tons of skim milk powder, and 3000 tons of glaxo, or whole milk powder. This company does three-quarters of the dairy business in Thames Valley, which comprised about one-third of the whole of the New Zealand Dairy Company’s district. The company has 6500 suppliers, and is the biggest cooperative dairy company in the world'. As its selling agents (the Bristol Dominions’ Producers’ Association) has gone into liquidation, the New Zealand Honey Producers’ Association has made arrangements for an expert to proceed to England to report on the market, accept consignments, and make the necessary arrangements to have honey placed on the market. The rapidity with which the Merino has decreased in New Zealand of late years is beginning to cause some concern. In 1910 there were 1,868,805 stud and flock Merino sheep returned, 1,063,491 in 1917, and 803,589 in 1920, while the total number of sheep in the Dominion was almost the same last year as ten years previously. In fifteen years the Merino flocks have decreased by about 60 per cent. The decrease has been brought about by the increased use of halfbred sheep, either first cross (Longwub! and Merino), or in-bred (such as Corriedales) .