8 Jan., 1907.] 



Nlull Farm Compclition. 



itself suffident evidence of the fact that nowhere else in the district was 

 there any similar attempt made at conservation. The addition of a few 

 handsful of gypsum scattered about the stalls would absorb and fix the 

 liquid manure, thus preventing the escape of the most vailuable portion of 

 it, viz., the ammonia. 



As a top dressing for grass land, for mulching purposes, in the vege- 

 table and flower garden, and in the orchard, the stable refuse is well 

 worthy of everv farmer's attention, no matter how large or small his 

 holding. 



{D) The Best and Cleanest Groining Crop — 10 Points Maximum. — In 

 this item there remains not much else to be said than that the crops were 

 uniformly good, and almost as uniformly dirty. The presence of the 

 wild oat ds easy enough to detect at this time of the year, and it is to be 

 seen everywhere. I might remark that while the wild oat thrives as well 

 as it does on the roads, there is little hope of keeping it out of the fallow 

 and cropped paddocks. One feature of the crop is worth noting here, 

 viz., the prevalence of barlev and foreign wheats. Hardlv one field is 



WHEAT EN ROUTE FOR THE RAIL\\AV STATION. 



free from these impurities, and in some cases it is particularly marked. 

 It the foreign varieties ripened at the same time as the bulk of the crop, 

 little harm would be done, but as they invariably mature earlier, they are 

 of no other value than as contributors to the rubbish already in the ground. 

 (£■) The Best System of Falloiving and Working of Fallow — 15 Points 

 Maximum. — In this section, I found that this season, no very high standard 

 could be set for the fallow. The winter has been unusually wet, so that 

 a great portion of the fallow is grassy, solely on account of the impos- 

 sibility of putting implements and horses on it. The conviction that the 

 fallow system is the only possible one in northern wheat farming is now 

 so strongly rooted that there is no necessity to refer to its advantages. 

 The difficulty exj>erienced in working the fallow is evident from the low 



