December, 



THE GAKDEN AND FIELD. 



818 



— The PriiuipK's o[ Drv 

 Kariniii};. - 



As the writer has elsewhere 

 pointed out the ICnjjlish ajiricultur 

 ist Jethro TuU is eutitltrd to be 

 called the " Founder of the Priiiei- 

 ples of Drv-farminjv." It is tnvo 

 that TuU saw as throu<;h "a glass 

 darkly." To-day we see more 

 clearly. But the principles which 

 we have adoi)ted arc niej^ly the 

 amplilieation, nothinji more, of 

 those fundamental methods of till- 

 ajje so jilainlv set forth, one hun- 

 dred cijjhty-two years ago, by the 

 genius of Jethro Tull. 



In his agricultural |L-lass (1731 ) 

 entitled The New Horse^Hoeing 

 Husbandry, or An Essay on the 

 Principles of Tillage and Vegeta- 

 tion, the ui\-«ntor of the corn drill 

 wrote : " For the finer land is 

 made by tillage the richer will it 

 become and the more plants will 

 it maintain." This axiom has ce- 

 ceived ample confirmation on the 

 arid lands of the "United States 

 and the British Empire, where the 

 deep plonghing of the virgin praiiie 

 and the thorough pulverisation o£ 

 the stubborn veldt sets fre-a aeons 

 of fertility. 



It was Tull who first enunciated 

 the three great principles of the 

 new farming.: (i) Drilling; (2) re- 

 duction of seed ; (3) absence of 

 weed. And he left a happy epi- 

 gram which at least is true for the 

 sunlit lands oversea ; " Tillage is 

 manure." 



The principles which we have 

 adopted in our experiments on the 

 Government Dry-Land Station at 

 Lichtenburg, in the Transvaal, 

 and which a»re now being extended 

 to the other dry land stations 

 throughout the Union of South 

 Africa, are eight in number, name- 

 ly : (i) Deep ploughing ; (2) pure 

 seed ; (3) thin seeding ; (4) drill- 

 ing ; (4) frequent harrowing ; (6) 

 weedless lands; (7) new varieties; 

 (8) moisture-saving fallows. 



— Moisture-Fallows and the Soil 

 Mulch. — 

 We believe that our success has 

 been due mainly to the use of mois.- 

 ture-saving fallows, in which the 

 rain is stored up in the soil for the 

 use of subsequent crops. The su- 

 preme need of South African Agri- 

 culture is not fertility but mois- 

 ture. Consequently, all our culti- 

 vation is directed to establishing 

 a moisture-saving fallow which 

 may be maintained for periods of 

 three months, six months, or one 

 year. Such a fallow is deeply 

 "ploughed in the first 'place, and 

 then kept constantly tilled to pre- 



vent the form'ation of, a soil-crust 

 which wouhl permit the moisture 

 to evaporate. This treatment re- 

 sults in four things ; (a) storage 

 of 'rainfall ; (b) destruction of 

 weeds which are moisture-robbers ; 



(c) admission of sunshine and air ; 



(d) encouragement of beneficial 

 soil-germs. 



Messrs. Russel and llulehinson, 

 of Kothamsted, recently demon- 

 strated that intense sunlight - des- 

 troys those harmJul soil organ- 

 isms which prfey on the plant food 

 making bacteria. The illuminating 

 researches of these scientists en- 

 able us more readily to under- 

 stand the spontaneous and mar- 

 \-ellous fertility of the lands of 

 South Africa which are bathed in 

 sunshine. 



The germ life of arid lands is a 

 subject worthy of the attention of 

 the Universities of the Empire. 



The well-known term soil-mulch 

 is deser\'ing of a brief notice. It 

 ma)' be defined as " any material 

 which is spread, upon the soil to 

 shade the surface from the sun and 

 to break the connection between 

 the water-bearing subsoO. and the 

 exposed surface." Examples of 

 mulching are familiar to everyone. 

 Turn over a board or stone lying 

 on the ground, and you will find 

 that the soil beneath is moister 

 than the ground aroimd it, since 

 the pores of the earth, or capillary 

 channels, have been closed, and 

 the current of moisture passing 

 upward to the surface has been 

 stopped. In the garden, leaves, 

 straw, and manure are commonly 

 used. But the most practical 

 mulch is made of loose, dry soU. 

 This is done by frequently stirring 

 the surface of the ploughed lands 

 with a harrow or cultivator. The 

 soil-mulch is also term.ed the soil- 

 blanket. 



Now the question arises : " How 

 deep should the soil-blanket be ? ' ' 

 The reply is : From two to six 

 inches, depending on the state of 

 the weather, the soil, and the crop. 

 In orchard cultivation, during a 

 drought, the soil blanket is often 

 made six inches or m.ore, but 

 for cereals it should seldom be 

 thicker than two to three inches, 

 as they are surface feeders. 



— Summary of Results. — 



It is doubtful if, since the t''me 

 of Tull, any soil has had a severer 

 test of his profound but forgotten 

 principles than the dry lands of 

 Lichtenburg in the Western Trans- 

 vaal. Let us summarise what has 

 been accomplished there. 



We have shown : — 



(1) That by our system of till- 

 age we are able to keep the soil 

 seed-bed moist for a whole year. 

 This means that, so far us mois- 

 ture is concerned, we can plant a 

 cro]) at any season — a most im- 

 portant matter in South Africa. 

 This result has been attained by 

 the use of moisture-saving fallows, 

 constantly harrowed, and kept 

 covered with a dry-soil blanket 

 which checks evaporation, 



(2) That it is possible to grow 

 dry land winter wheat and to har- 

 dest it before the season of rust. 



(3) That drilling, as might be 

 expected, is far better than broad- 

 casting, saves seeds, places the 

 grain in the moist seed-bed, and 

 gives a more even growth. 



(4) That thin seeding, ^or wheat 

 30 to 40 pounds per acre, gives 

 larger returns than more lavish 

 sowing. This is due to the fact 

 that each individual plant has 

 more moisture, sunlight, and food 

 if given ample space. 



(5) That the durum wheats have 

 given the best results. They are 

 the wheats which have extended 

 the wheat-belt into the most arid 

 regions of Western America. 



(6) That the durum' wheat — 

 Apulia^ — has been grown undetr our 

 dry-farming system without a drop 

 of rain falling upon it from seed- 

 time until harvest, which proves 

 the efficacy of the moisture-saving 

 fallow, and is a record in modern 

 agriculture. 



— A German Testimony. — 



A short time ago a fair-headed, 

 blue-eyed Viking was sent from 

 Berlin to Windhuk to grow two 

 blades of grass where but one 

 grew before, in the person of Mr. 

 Walter Richter, the AgncAtural 

 Adviser to German South-West 

 Africa. He spent several months 

 in British South Africa investigat- 

 ing our soils and crops with the 

 skill, the patience, and the in- 

 dustry for which his race is so 

 justly renowned. To our ques- 

 tion : " What do you consider the 

 most instructive part of yotur 

 tour ? " Mr. Richter replied with- 

 out hesitation : " The Dryland Ex- 

 perimient Station at Lichtenburg. 

 There I saw durum wheat being 

 harvested which not onlv had been 

 grown on a poor shallow: soil, but 

 actually never had a drop of rain 

 upon it from s(eed-time to harvest. 

 There, also, I saw dry land which 

 is never dry the whole year round. 



