242 THE farmers' handbook. 



For the same reason deep reploughing just before seeding is not recom- 

 mended; it ia likely to make the seed-bed too open and dry for the wheat 

 plant, and also by bringing deep-lying and dormant weed seeds to the surface 

 where they will have the same opportunities as the wheat to grow and com- 

 pete with it for. existence. 



The compaction of the seed-bed — that is, the soil just below the surface — 

 is of greater importance than is generally realised. To sow seed in a loos 

 seed-bed often means failure. Many a farmer has realised it when he has 

 ploughed a stubble paddock 5 inches deep and sowed the seed shortly after 

 the ploughing. No time has been allowed for the worked soil and the sub- 

 soil to become again compacted into a homogeneous mass, and the roots of 

 the young plants have dried out in the large air spaces left by unskilful culti- 

 vation. 



Compacting the Seed-bed. 



Under a system which provides for the working of fallowed land, the use 

 of the roller to break clods or compact the soil will be unnecessary and in 

 many eases distinctly harmful. During- the period of fallowing, any clods 

 that may have originally been present after ploughing will have become 

 weathered down into good tilth; should this not have occurred and the clods 

 still be there, a spiked roller may be used. 



Nor will there, be any need for the use of a special implement like the 

 sub-surface packer to compact the sub-surface soil and so bring the subsoil 

 moisture to just below the mulch, where it will be available for the germina- 

 tion of seeds. This will have been accomplished incidentally, as the result 

 of working the fallowed land, the sub-surface soil of which will have become 

 compact as the result of natural settlement, aided by the tramping of the 

 grazing stock and by the teams and implements passing over the land. 

 During the period between early ploughing and seed-time the soil is more 

 thoroughly compacted by the forces of nature than could possibly be done 

 by any implement devised by man. 



Does Fallowing Pay ? 



The all-important issue respecting fallowing is raised in this question, and 

 a comparison of the cost of working fallowed with non-fallowed land, together 

 with the average returns in each case, is distinctly interesting. For the pur- 

 pose we may take the average yield of the State, which is about 12 bushels 

 per acre, as representing the non-fallowed land (a distinctly favourable 

 basis), and the average yield on the Farmers' Experiment Plots (which ac- 

 cording to a large number of plots in all parts of the State spread over 

 several seasons, may be fixed at 20 bushels), as representing fallowed land. 



Cost [hi acre of Wheat-growing on Non-fallowed Land; estimated yield, 



12 bushels. 



Ploughing once 

 Harrowing nine 



Drilling 



Seed. 4."i lh. at Ts. 6d. per bushel 

 Superphosphate, i cwt. at 7s. . . 

 Pickling seed 

 Harvesting with header 

 Kent, at 8s. per acre 



Bags, four at lOd 



Cartage, at 4d. per bushel 



£2 5 Ht 



