HOW TO CLEAN AGRICULTURAL TRUTHS

Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 64, 26 September 1872, Page 3

HOW TO CLEAN AGRICULTURAL TRUTHS

(From the Aoiucer/rrriAi. Gazette, July G.) A. tJHKi'trr. icHHon may b« read, thin year, as indeed, in any year, in that, great experimental field—the field of English agriculture. I n souk; respects an ungenial iieasori oilers an iiniHtnlly good opportunity for experimental observations, and for testing the behaviour of corn under different treatment. Mr iMrwiji gained the greatest insight into the law of variation when he turned his attention to the forms in which variation in most prominent. The corn crops this year arc subjected to unusual trials, owing to the unkind condition of the land ; and it is probable the variations of yield will be greater than iiHiial. In great years, like IHfJU, there is less disparity than usual in the crops on rich and poor land; indifferent farmers rival their Ix , tier neighbours, and the wheat crop in particular acquire* ho much vigour—-perhaps through the wider range of its roots —that even poor clays, which will probably d<; badly thin year, yield great crops. To some extent the " first-rate farmer" is stultified in great year*, and fortune smiles on those who don't owe much to skill. Assuming that there will be great disparities in tin! crops this year, we think it will be a good Reason for tracing the eausos. There an! many moot points Htill in regard to management, which keep the market table in a buzz all the year round, and do not always find satisfactory solution even in the greater arenas of discussion. We will refer to a i'aw subjects upon which we think the light of further observation may ho directed with advanlage. Of course; the new i-ystemfl introduced by modern farming confront us first. Formerly, dnug was the only manure; now there arc a hundred, good and bad. Farming had once only three or four courses and nfatious; now it lias cndle.-B shifts, and is somettimes called fast—and we have heard it called furious. What will be the result of fast, farming this season ? Persons who an; interested in watching the conduct of the ground, as every farmer is, will not have forgotten That Mr "KVnrcy, in his report, of the inspection of fiirms in Oxfordshire, in a dry season, doubts the propriety of growing corn year after year on the Bivmc hind by the aiHs.of artificial manures, and traces the history of light, and inferior crops to an exhausting system. In the long run he thinks " the true Bvsteiii is to endeavour to keep as much stock as possible, and not to grow corn upon too many acres." A light ear, no doubt, follows the frequent use of guano and nmmoniaele manures on some soils, and on the chalks throughout Kent top-dressings are alwavs dangerous, and nitrate of soda —the strong arm of the green-sand farmer below the hill—invariably causes blight; but on the Maine spot the two white Htraw crops are not feared, and an oat stubble j (" gnitfen ") is considered hy high farmers almost as | good a preparation for wheat as a clover lea. In other localities, however, wheat docs badly after spring corn, though the latter may do well after the former. It seems there are soils and soils, and systems and svstems. We may 'gather from the above that the ability, so to speak,'of oats or hurley to gather sufficient food for a good crop after wheat, while wheat has not the flame ability to make itself at home nfler barley or outs, must he due to difference in their root power, and not to absolute deficiency in the soil, The ground lhat contains food for lOqr of oats must be capable of feeding a crop of wheat, The future of a crop depends very much on the start it gets early in life. Our renders nre aware that half a crop of corn at lenst mav he grown for many years in succession without manure on the same land, wh'ieh would not however, produce more than two or three crops (running) of turnips, because they would not get the necessary start in early life when their delicate little feeders require pabulum in the right place, thnt is, at the surface, where (hey can reach it. The ground mav contain abundance of food, nnd enough for many crops of turnips ; but the plant, it seems, requires concentrated nutriment to start it, and starves in its YH-v babyhood if it be not nursed with fine mould

and Ted with proper pap. If we contemplate the natural vogitation of the earth we (ind cereals growing everywhere and turnips nowhere. The former can pick up a living on waste or poor places; wheat espeei illy, being slow of growth and having six or seven months to establish itself before it makes much start, has the power of assimilating nourishment where food is sparingly distributed. The short-lived turnip docs not possess this power. The diUerenees in natural habit are the main reason for adopting rotations of crops. It is an old notion among practical farmers of the old school, that if you keep the ground clean and manured, and get your "changes," you cannot over-crop; and it is an advimlage to farm laud that will bear a variety of crops, because it is then easier to change them. Within reach of the. London manure, however, there good old rules are entirely upset by the force of dung, and we have se.Mi a. second crop of cabbages pricked out as fast as ihe land could be ploughed after marketing the former crop. Market gardeners think very little of "changes." Fust, or slow in farming is very much a question of feeding the laud, and as vegetation in this country is not particularly spontaneous, especially when everything is sold oIY, there is a great struggle for fertilisers of all kinds, unci whatever the rotation may be, the salvage, of profit from the crops is seldom very great. Oerfainly the British farmer has sufficient incitements to labour, ami his energy is not likely to be reduced by that extraordinary exubereneo of vegetation which is said to prevail in the tropics, where the rank growth of the jungle sinks into the earth, to spring up again like the phoonix from its ashes. P>ut so long as the ashes, or remains of the JSritish farmer's crops, do not return to his fields, the stru> T «-le we have referred to must continue, and landlords'eannot be expected to sit under their fig-trees in perfect ease, while cross-cropping is going on around them, ami a'l old saws are questioned. To return to our text, we think that in this somewhat exceptional season, when the sodden earth, unmellowed by frost, cannot prove so k ; nd for crops as usual, much useful information might be gained and distributed by systematic inspection of various localities, and by recording the lessons of the year, including'the olleets of manures, differences of preparation, succession o\' crops, depth of draining, times of sowing quantities of seed. kc. The Royal Agricultural Society might, we think, render a great service to agriculture'by instituting inquiries, and at the same time making a personal inspeet ; onto secure attention and interest. Farmers woul d willingly open their gates and ofVor explanations on points of interest and tbev might be induced, perhaps, to oiler subsequent information if required. The materials for a general report might be thus obtained, and all that would be needed to make it extremely valuable would be to secure an impartial view, and to exclude the theories of the advocates of this or that system. The practice of agriculture ofters the widest field of experiment, and' the adept who happens to be a close observer, draws his conclusions from observations made on a hundred farms besides his own. His first study is the soil, and in all that relates to ita qualities, Us productive powers and behaviour under dilterent treatment, he possesses knowledge of great practical value. Light gradually comes to the mind intent upon a single" subject, and continually poring into it through long years. It comes to the agriculturalist who studies the mysteries of his art — "Till old experience do attain To. something like prophetic strain;"

and it is reflected on the dullest of his brethren, who learn by experience to apply their knowledge in the varying condition* of agricultural practice with something like scientific precision. The farther light that may be shed on practical agriculture by purely Hcientilic investigations, which are at present beyond its ken, may be very great indeed ; but as agriculrure in a Bcienee of application, and must be learnt, we are persuaded the chief society would net wisely to descend into the arena of every-day fanning, and to draw nearer to the great body of farmers, for the sake both of what they might mutually teach and learn.