498 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



April, 19U 



which are applied to the top 6 in. 

 of soil must so chaiipi^ that thev 

 can be carried bv the waters which 

 the plants take up, otherwise the 

 plants could never get the^n. 



Now there are tr.-anv aj^ncies at 

 work accomplishint^ these chanijes. 

 Amonfr them are fermentation, 

 heat li'ht, and water. Every one 

 of these aeencies is made active 

 bv cultivation, and dormant by 

 non-cultivation. The <rrower who 

 o-ives his crop an extra cultivation 

 has a better return than his ne'ie-h- 

 bour, because he has aided the 

 conditions which make fertilisers 

 available. 



Fermentation is probably the 

 chief ag-ent for making these insol- 

 uble plant foods soluble. It pro- 

 duces carbonic acid which, with 

 water will dissolve what water 

 alone would not. The heat of fer- 

 mentation also helps. There are 

 acids of fermentation at work at 

 this besides the direct action of 

 the roots in corroding and dis- 

 solvinii insoluble substances. 



This fermentation is produced 

 from the oDranic matter ' in the 

 soil, and is wonderfully helped by 

 cultivation. The iirocess is a 

 slow one naturally, but is increased 

 so bv fre'iuent cidtivation that the 

 effect of a short season may be 

 partly overcome, or a late plant- 

 ine made equal to an early one. 



Suppose one uses manure or 

 r>eas, or a blood and bone ferti- 

 liser. These must first decay. 

 Now the little micro-oreanism 

 which converts decayed matter in- 

 to nitro<'-eri must have oxy<^en for 

 its work. Cultivation 'iupplies this. 

 The more frenuent and deep thr 

 lultivation. the more actively the 

 nitrifvine trerms can work, which 

 results in more active growth by 

 th^ plants. 



The yearly fertiliser bill is one 

 of the lareest on every successful 

 fann. and the quicker the farmer 

 "•ets the most benefit the better. 

 The best means to this end is cul- 

 tivation, and it is so simple and 

 so cheap that it ouirht to be more 

 freelv used. 



One can lock money in the 

 •Tound bv aPPlvincr fertilisers and 

 then ;illowin(r the eround to settle. 

 Ml the friends of nlant life then 

 lM»conie inert or disappear. The lit- 

 tle nitrifvinc r-rrrnnism cannot p-et 

 its oxvren. Sunli'^rht is driven 

 back from the soil it (tries to wanr 

 onb- to dry nnd curl the folHaife. 

 and the moisture whidi the root«< 

 are trvinir to absorb is carried 

 straight to the surfa«:e and lost in 

 the air.— Exchange. 



The Soil. 



]\ranv a'/ricultural terms are dif- 

 ficult to define exactl}^ and some 

 have varied and intt'rchanjreable 

 meanings. One minute we may 

 sreak of the earth, meaning our 

 planet : and in the next talk of 

 a handful or a load of earth. N 

 man mav speak of buying i,ooo 

 acres of land and his friend mav 

 at once ask him whether his land, 

 is sand, loam or clay. One may 

 speak of cultivating the soil, an- 

 other of ploughing the land, a thiird 

 refers to digging the ground, and 

 the three mean the same thing. 



The soil, the ground, the earth, 

 or the land produces plants, ani- 

 mals subsist on plants, and, in so 

 doing, produce waste which, with 

 their bo'dies when they decay, goes 

 back to the land as manure. This 

 is merely a eeneral statement, but 

 it broadly expresses the rotation 

 of nature on which agriculture is 

 b ased . 



The soil is, in a sense, the far- 

 mer's work.shon and his raw ma- 

 terial. We therefore, have to con- 

 sider amoue other thines whence 

 came the soil ? What is soil ? 

 How and whv it varies ? What 

 princinles are involved in cultivat- 

 ing it ? and many other questions. 



— 'WTience Cam.e the Soil. — 



In answertintr this ciuestion we.- 

 have to "^o far back in the history 

 of our planet, or in other words, 

 to under.stand the oririn* of soils. 

 The student should know a little 

 of P''eolo"»'y. He mu.st realise that, 

 at the present time, and far back 

 through countless a?es, the hi.story 

 of the earth has been a process of 

 buMdino- and destruction, of mak- 

 inir and unmakinp". Some of the 

 atrencies are violent, a,girressive and 

 easily seen ; others are unobtrusive 

 or actually hidden. All that we 

 can do in a limited article like this 

 is to pive such nn outline as will 

 enable the student to unders+an-l 

 the elements of the s'lb'ect as it 

 affects practical africulture. be- 

 cause for deeper study he will na- 

 turally r.'ad the special works on 

 soils, as he will (ro to his geoloiry 

 for his understandin"- of the rock.s 

 from which soils have been mainly 

 derived. 



— Soils Derived from the Decay 

 of Rocks. — 



It is usual to say that soils are 

 formed by the decay of rockis and 

 that is in the main true; but there 

 is an essential difference between 

 decomposed rock and a fertile soil, 

 which an illustration may serve 

 to explain. It is in the main cor- 



rect to sav that bread is made 

 from Hour and water, but flour 

 and water also make damper, 

 which differs from bread nvuch 

 more in appearance, texture and 

 palatabilitv than in composition. 



The illustration is better than it 

 first appears, although like all il- 

 lustrations it .should not be carried 

 beyond the ])oint it is intended to- 

 illustrate. The essential difference 

 between the damper and the bread 

 is due to the action of yeast, whicU 

 is a single-celled microscopical 

 plant which produces comparative- 

 iy slight chemical changes, but the 

 carbonic acid gas it produces caus- 

 es great physical difference in the 

 resulting bread. In a similar' way 

 the change from unfertile decom- 

 posed rock to a fertile soil is large- 



CURLEW BRANDY. 



For years the Only Brandy Udeo 

 in fch« Adelaide Hoipital. 



Sole Ag«nt« — 



DOWNER A 00. 



Wine and Spirit Merchante aad 

 Aerated Writer Manufacturers. 



43 WA\T\IOIJTH ST., CITY. 



