112 Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. [Feb. 2, 1920. 



late years have given animal manure a greater value. It is probably worth 

 ■£1 to £2 per ton at the pi-eseut time. Only, of course, from tests as to the 

 increased yields attending its use can any definite value be assigned to it. 



Live Stock versus Grain Farming. 



From the results just quoted it will be seen that live stock plays an impor- 

 tant part in maintaining and increasing the fertility of the farm. For many 

 years maize-growing for grain was conducted as a sole business on certain 

 farms on the coastal river flats that were once renowned for their fertility. 

 Many of these farms are to-day going over to dairying — a sign that they are 

 " worked out." With dairying is also combined pig-raising on a larger or 

 smaller scale as a profitable adjunct, and the beneficial effect of the change 

 of system and of the innovations incidental to it soon becomes apparent. It 

 is generally recognised that leguminous hay and fodder crops (chiefly lucerne 

 and clover) are most profitable for stock, and that, with the grass pasture 

 which must also be provided, they form the best means of increasing soil 

 fertility. The effect of this is apparent when the land again comes under 

 cultivated crops, the stimulation given to the maize crop following pasture 

 or leguminous hay crops being largely due to the accumulation of organic 

 matter and increase of fertility elements in the surface soil. There is, too, 

 no question that maize fodder and grain are amongst the best feeds, and 

 almost indispensable for dairying and pig-raising. 



With these increased yields of fodder and grain in the maize ci'oji, pro- 

 bably only half or three-fourths of the area is necessary to produce the amount 

 obtainable by continuous maize culture. In those districts, such as Inverell 

 and the Northern Tableland, where wheat or oats for grain or hay is grown as 

 well as maize, live-stock farming means that a greater number of cattle and 

 sheep are kept, more pasture, lucerne or clover, is grown, and more maize for 

 fodder and silage and less for grain should be sown than where grain farming 

 is followed without many cattle, pigs or sheep. The rich soils of the Inverell 

 district may be able to stand grain farming better, perhaps, than many other 

 soils in the State ; but although its effects may not be felt there for some 

 years yet, such methods can only I'csult in a poor inheritance for the next 

 generation. Apart from this, moisture is usually the limiting factor in the 

 Inverell district, and this can be conserved in greater amount in the soil by 

 the decay of deep-rooting crops like lucerne and clovers, while an abundance 

 of hay for the drought periods is assured. We have, then, the apparent 

 anomaly, that in order to be more prepared for droughts it is better to 

 increase the stock and to go in for less grain farming and more for mi.\ed or 

 live-stock farming, for which more lucerne and clover will have to be grown. 

 The agricultural possibilities of a district like Inverell, it might be added, will 

 never be fully realised until the country is studded with silos to conserve, in 

 a succulent form, the riotous growth of fodder which is wasted in good seasons. 



As a matter of actual fact, the decision whether grain farming or live-stock 

 farming is to be followed is largely determined by the land tenure. A tenant 

 farmer on short lease is fully justified in " skinning the land for all it is 



