11 March, 1918.] Apple Culture in Victoria. 



131 



manured with bone dust and superphosphate, as soon as the late maturing 

 apples have been gathered. Heavier crops of peas are obtained, however, 

 when they are sown in drills, and cultivated occasionally during their 

 growth. When a fairly mild winter follows the sowing of the peas, they 

 generally arrive at the proper condition for ploughing under about the 

 time the early flowering apple trees are in full bloom, which varies, 

 according to weather conditions, from the 1st to the 14th of October. 



Plate 153 illustrates a crop of field peas, sown broadcast, in full 

 bloom, and in the proper condition to be ploughed under. Plants, or 

 portions of plants, containing a maximum of cell sap when turned under 

 decompose more readily than those more matured. When the seeds are 

 allowed to partly develop in the pods, before being buried, the vascular 

 system and cutical portions of the plants begin to lignify. This con- 



Plate 154. — A Trifolium (Medicagoi Seedling, seventeen days 

 old, showing nodules on roots (natural size), (a) 

 and ( h ) illustrate nodules (natural size) taken from 

 a plant of the same variety, eight weeks old. 



dition, with, perhaps, an insufficiency of soil moisture, retards decom- 

 position, and consequently bacterial activity. 



Grreen manure should be buried to a depth of from 6 to 8 inches, and 

 the most suitable implement to employ for this work is a two-furrow 

 orchard plough with circular revolving coulters. When the crop is 

 heavy and difficult to plough under in the ordinary way, these ploughs 

 may be fitted with weed-burying attachments. When the green crop has 

 been buried, the rate of decomposition, its subsequent nitrification and 

 assimilation by the soil, largely depend on the quantity of moisture 

 present and the maintenance of the soil's aeration during the process. 

 Where the ground lacks sufficient moisture, this should be supplied by 

 irrigation, and the soil may be kept sufficiently aerated by using a light 

 drag-harrow or spring tooth cultivator, set for shallow working. Though 

 deep cultivation is practised at this time, it is not advised, as quantities 



