FACTS FOR FARMERS.

Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 53, 31 August 1872, Page 3

FACTS FOR FARMERS.

According to the scientific journal, wood soaked in a strong solution of common Halts, is thereby protected against decay, especially when placed under ground. The following sentences are from the " Gospel of Agriculture," by John 11. Haveu : — llow long, ye shallow ploughers, will it take you lo learn the lesson that one acre, deep-ploughed and well-cultivated will produce nearly double what two acres will shal-low-ploughed and neglected ? Farmers plough deep, subsoil, go twice in a furrow thoroughly mix. and incorporate your manure with the soil, use the harrow, keep the soil completely and continually stirred and pulverized, and you shall reap such a reward as shallow-ploiighcrs have never dreamed of. Prof. Voelcker pays in the "Mark Lane Express" that "by far the largest proportion of the fertilising substances contained in the turnip crop, probably above seven-eighths is returned to the land if the crop is consumed by the sheep on the field, and only about one-eighth of the materials useful as manure is carried away by the sheep in the form of bone, and the nitrogenous matters which enter into the composition of the animal organism." This hint is of great, importance to Australian farmers, who as a rnlo still continue to do what is all but an impossibility, viz , to farm profitably without sheep. The man who attempts to farm without sheep is little better than a robber of the soil. The great want of Australian farmers is a good breed of heavy bodied and heavy-fleeced rnimals. To use the Marino for the purposes of the farmer is like trying to cut hay with a pair of scissors, or to fell trees with a razor. Top-dressing meadows and winter crops with fine manure or compost, is a most useful operation which is sadly neglected or not appreciated by most farmers. 35y my own experience, says a correspondent, and from considerable observation of others, I have proved three special advantages from this practice—beside others of less value . I found it to cause good and poor meadows to yield twice as much and better grass, in a season, find with less injury and exhaustion by frequent mowings ; and while producing a better yield in quantity and quality ; I have found it enabling me to raise good crops of satisfactory grain, when planted in localities and on farms where it was not possible to secure crops without this mulching. It shelters the young plants of grass and grain from severe sudden changes of temperature; it prevents the moisture from evaporating, and the ground from baking by the first hot suns, and helps to smother down weeds, which are liable to spring up.