Feb. 2, 1920.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 113 



■worth " by grain farming ; on a long lease, however, and on his own land, 

 the time will soon arrive when the farmer must seriously consider the ques- 

 tion on its other merits. Even now the careful buyer or renter of land 

 might profitably make inquiry into the system of farming previously followed, 

 as a factor worth consideration in arranging suitable terms. 



An Interesting Experiment. 



The results of an interesting experiment, in which a system of live-stock 

 farming was compared with grain farming,* with an identical rotation of 

 •corn, soy beans, wheat, and clover, are available from Ohio. As an eight-year 

 average the yield of maize in the live-stock system of farming was 64'.58 

 bu.shels per acre, and in the grain system 58 -57 bushels. Even in this rotation, 

 which provided two leguminous crops in four years, and in which the crop 

 residues were returned to the soil as stubble or as green manure, in the grain- 

 farming system the yields fell behind the live-stock system. How much more 

 seriously would the yields be reduced in grain farming when — as is the usual 

 practice in grain farming in this State— little or no attempt was made to grow 

 legumes or to i-eturn crop residues or green manure to the soil 1 



A word of caution is perhaps essential to those who might think that live- 

 stock farming is all that is necessary to maintain or restore fertility to worn- 

 out land. How, for instance, can the elements of fertility be increased in 

 the soil by pasturing when only about three-fourths of these elements in the 

 feed consumed pass through the animal and one-fourth is retained for the 

 building up of its body and in the composition of its products — milk, wool, 

 &c. ? To a certain extent, the surface soil can be maintained in fertility 

 elements by the pasturing of perennial deep-rooting legumes, but it is difficult 

 to see how it can be enriched greatly by pasturing unless purchased feeds are 

 uspd in addition, or unless cultivation crops (especially lucerne and clovers) 

 are " soiled " or fed as hay on the pasture. Apart from this consideration, it 

 las been proved in older countries, by deBuite experiments, that although 

 nitrogen and organic matter can be maintained or increased by live stock 

 farming and the growing of leguminous crops, no such maintenance or increase 

 of phosphates can be made except by the purchase of phosphatic fertilisers. 



Fertilisers. 



Our knowledge of the principles underlying the relationship of plant food 

 materials in the soil and commercial fertilisers is by no means complete. We 

 do know, however, something of the value of these fertilisers under certain 

 conditions for maize, and are able, as the result of definite field tests, to make 

 some recommendations. 



An analysis of the soil gives us information concerning the total amounts 

 of nitrogen, phosphorus and potash (the three chief plant food ingredients 

 required by crops) in the soil analysed, but does not tell us how much of 

 these materials are readily available to plants or what amount can be made 

 readily available. A fertiliser practice based on the supply of elements in 

 which the soil is found to be deficient by chemical analysis has been proved 



* Ohio Agr. Expt. Sta. Bull. 328 (1918). 



