FARM AND DAIRY

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXVI, Issue 9063, 24 April 1937, Page 4

FARM AND DAIRY

IMPORTAMGE OF LIME ON CROPS REDUCES ACIDITY SOIL MORE EASILY WORKED Most farmers are aware that soils on which certain crops fail to grow well have what is termed an acid reaction; and these are generally called "sour" soils. The terms "soil sourness' and "soil acidity" are often used as if they meant the same thing; but it should be understood that a soil is not necessarily sour or infertile although it may have an acid reaction. Many types of soil are naturally acid. Some plants cannot tolerate more than a certain degree of acidity, but there is a great deal of variation in the resistance of plants to acid conditions. Indeed, there is distinct evidence that many crops grow best in slightly acid soils. The condition known 'as 'sourness" can be generally ameliorated, if not cured, by the application of lime. A certain amount of calcium is essential to plant growth, but it is rarely, if ever, that the supply of this element in the soil falls below the quantity necessary for the individual requirements of the plant so that the effects of lime upon the crop itself are chiefly secondary. Lime acts mainly upon the soil, bringing it into a condition more favourable to plant growth, and regulating the absorption or effect of other substances as regards the plant. Lime reduces acidity or entirely neutralises it, while it prevents substances like aluminium having a harmful effect on plant growth, either by rendering them insoluable, or by giving greater vigour to the plant. In some soils it causes the plant to absorb a greater amount of nutrient elements, such as potassium. It aids in hastening the decomposition of plant residues or other organic material, and in soils in which soluble phosphates would tend to combine with iron or other compounds to form very insoluble substances, it prevents this happening, and helps to keep the phosphate in a form readily available to the plant. Lime improves the physical condition of heavy soils by giving the clay, a more granular structure and rendering it less impervious to water, thus causing the soil to be more easily worked. The maintenance of the supply of calcium or | lime in a soil is, therefore, of great importance, and almost as much attention should be paid to it as to the maintenance of the nitrogen, potash and phosphate supplies. Lime may be lost from a soil in several ways—a certain amount is, removed annually by crops and grazing stock; a large amount disappears in the drainage water. In order to maintain the fertility of the soil these losses must be made good, and where the wast- j age is unchecked, the soil will lose considerably in fertility. MILK PROBLEM IN ENGLAND The view of the British National Farmers' Union is that post-war experience has demonstrated the importance of devising measures for the maintenance and expansion of home food production, and that this is just as important from the standpoint of the Dominions, to whom second place on the British market has been conceded. The measure of stability enjoyed by milk producers during 14 years is claimed by a British farming journal to be wholly due to the work of the union in the days of the Permanent Joint Committee, and later by the launching of the milk marketing scheme. When cereal production became unprofitable, many cereal growers switched over to milk production, and so aggravated the surplus milk problem. The cereal situation was eased by the Wheat Act, but the collapse of beef prices immediately created a tendency for beef producers to switch over to dairying. The result was seen in the very serious problem that surplus milk now presented to the Milk Marketing Board. The greatest difficulties which the Milk Marketing Board has had to face have arisen in connection with manufactured milk prices, and, according to the views of the National . Farmers' Union, it is essential that the country's treaty commitments should be revised at the earliest possible date to enable the regulation of imports to be effected. The Milk Act was welcomed by producers as an emergency measure, but it has become increasingly obvious according to the union "that in the best interests of producers and consumers a levy with a preference to the Dominions should be imposed on all competing imports of milk products and that the proceeds of the levy should be applied to maintaining reasonable price levels for milk which goes into 1 manufacture."