FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



of erecting costly silos we should like to see some form of agreement 

 between landlord and tenant by which both would be compelled, with- 

 out risk oi ruin but on the other hand in the interests of each to add 

 to the soil that which has been ruthlessly taken away. After that we 

 can discuss fodder conservation. 



Under the heading of better systems of farming we must first ask 

 ourselves, " Whence do plants obtain their constituent s ?" In the 

 opinion of the writer the cause o-i soil deterioration on the South 

 Coast has been brought about by bad farming, or in other words, 

 farming with a disregard of the future. Many of those who have left 

 the South Coast for other 'districts in the State a're the first to cry 

 out, " Oh ! the South Coast districts are done." The South Coast dis- 

 tricts are not done they have been simply robbed of their natural 

 inheritance by the very individuals who have the same object in view 

 whence they have gone. Before any man can consider himself a far- 

 mer he must be led to consider the food of plants ; for we must regard 

 every substance which supply the plants with one or more of the ele- 

 ments necessary to the building up of its body as a means of nutri- 

 ment thereto. 



On this subject Henirey says : " Plants can absorb their food only 

 through the pores so fine as to be altogether invisible to the naked 

 eye. of -their root fibres and leaves, hence everything which can use- 

 fully contribute to their nourishment must be either liquid or aeriform, 

 since solid bodies cannot penetrate into their structure. The results 

 which have been obtained as yet by investigation iiuo the sources of 

 supply of these nutrients furnish the -following answers to the above 

 inquiry : 



"(a) Plants obtain their oxygen and hydrogen from water, without 

 which, indeed, it is, generally speaking, wholly impossible that they 

 can live and thrive. In addition to this, water is indispensable to 

 vegetation, from the fact that it supplies a medicine for dissolving all 

 those nutritive substances which cannot of themselves become fluid 

 or aeriform, and because, moreover, its fluid constitution is the means 

 of the formation of the solid vegetable structures; for it is from the 

 juice made liquid by water that all the solid constituents o-t plants are 

 produced. 



"(b) Plants absorb carbon in the form of carbonic acid, which is 

 a constant ingredient in our atmospheric air and spring water, and is 

 formed in every soil that contains humus. Carbonic acid is a kind 

 of air which is unceasingly produced in extraordinary quantities by 

 the three chemical processes most universally diffused in Nature; wt 

 mean the respiration of men and animals, the combustion of wood, 

 coal, &c., and the putrefaction or decay of animal and vegetable mat- 

 ter. It is, moreover, evolved in fermentation, and causes the effer- 

 vescence and ' rising' of the fermenting mass, as likewise the sparkle 

 of beverages not thoroughly and completely fermentd, such as bottled 

 beer, champagne, &c. Lastly, it streams forth from crevices in many 

 places where, volcanic forces are active, or, as we may conjecture, 

 were active in former times. 



"All the carbonic acid generated in these different ways is taken up 

 into the atmosphere. If it should continue there the air must of neces- 

 sity become gradually deteriorated and unfit for respiration, more es- 

 pecially as in all the processes of breathing, combustion, and decay 

 free oxygen or vital air is removed from it. But this is not the case. 

 The oxygen does no!: decrease, the carbonic acid does not increase. 

 The vegetable world discharges the function, not only of a supporter, 

 but also of a protector of animal liie. It not only provides the whole 

 animal kingdom with nourishment, but also restores again to the air 

 the oxygen abstracted by the 'former. For plants absorb carbonic acid 

 by their roots and leaves as their most important article of food, and 

 again exhale the carbon of the carbonic acid a:M appropriate it to 



706. 



