May, 1914 



THK GARDEN AND FIELD. 



6fi9 



WANTED TO SELL 



INCUBATORS AND BROODRRS 

 Simplex, awardod firit price (siUbi 

 medal) Adelaide Exhibition, I'.MO. 

 A^ent for Cort'i Patent Cooler eafe. 

 a boon in eummer. Send for price 

 liel.— D. IJVNYON. Manufacturer, 46 

 North Terrace, Kent Town. >'< \1. 



have to buy it, and cliarfjv capital 

 account with a \cry larjje sum of 

 monev every vear to be paH to 

 the bank in interest. Instead of 

 this, the (jTONvers, under the delu- 

 sive inducements of Ine stora;;e, 

 not only hand this sum over as a 

 present to the buyers, but, worst 

 of all, arm them in addition with 

 a wea]ion to be used in haminer- 

 insf down the price in the market. 

 The first thinir the producers re- 

 quire to consider is to obtain 

 control of their own wheat. 



What I would sug'jjest is farmers 

 should own wheat silos at the 

 railway stations iiending the set- 

 tlement of the Inilk-handlittg ques- 

 tion. Silo storino- would provide 

 a w.av to the handlin<r of their own 

 prain by the producers at once. 

 Any «^rower can start anywhere. 

 What is to prevent a grower from 

 erecting his own silo at his own 

 railway station, running the 

 wheat into his silo by pneumatic 

 elevator, loose, and taking the 

 empty baes back to the farm for 

 the next load ? Not the least of 

 the advantages of this expedient 

 would be keeping off the bag mar- 

 ket at the time when bags are 

 forced un to a lii^h "rice, because 

 all the farmers are in the market 

 for baes at the same time. Silo 

 wheat need not be basrged till the 

 fall in the bap^ market, which al- 

 ways takes place after harvest. 

 A railway station receipt for the 

 wheat in the silo would be found 

 sufficient at the local bank for the 

 moderate advances sometimes re- 

 quired after harvest, pendin'^ the 

 time of sellino-. Thus secured in a 

 silo, the wheat is ready when re- 

 c|uired to rim down again into 



the bags ready for truckling, with 

 the immense advantage that all 

 the time it has been under the far- 

 mers' control, instead of being 

 under the control of others who 

 use it for bearing down the prices 

 in the market. 



♦ 



The Choice of Manures. 



The principles which guide the 

 practical man in his choice of 

 manures and fertilizers are simple 

 and well knowTi. In the first place 

 the growing plant requires large 

 quantities of water, if only to 

 repair the inevitable and continu- 

 ous loss of water vapour from the 

 leaves. The plant itself contains 

 an extraordinarily large percent- 

 age of water, and all the chemical 

 operations which take place in it 

 depend for their fulfdment on a 

 larger or small (piantity of water 

 in the tissues of the plant. Hence 

 if he is to obtain larger crops the 

 gardener must see to it that an 

 adequate supply of water is avail- 

 able . to the plant. It is not 

 enough for him — even where it is 

 practicable — to add water: he must 

 build up a soil of such constitution 

 that it will both hold water and 

 part with it readily to the plant. 

 Since decaying organic matter, 

 farmyard manure, imparts this 

 property to the soil, this class of 

 substance is looked upon as an 

 ideal manure. 



In the second place, the practice 

 of manuring depends on the well- 

 established fact that certain min- 

 eral substances, and particularly 

 nitroa^en compounds, potash and 

 phosphoric acid, are essential 

 plant foods. Hence the art of 

 manuring consists in the ameliora- 

 tion of the water conditions of 

 the soil and in supplying suffi- 

 ciencies in what may be called the 

 feeding capacity of the soil. There 

 is, however, a third principle, 

 which is no less important, but 

 which is apt to be overlooked. 



That principle is an economic one. 

 The gardener must secure the con- 

 ditions which we have indicated 

 at the minimum of cost. 



J?v the addition of sufTicient 

 large quantities an adequate 

 amount of essential food may be 

 provided ; but since dung contains 

 relatively small quantities of such 

 an es.sential as i)hosphoric acid it 

 is evident that a more economical 

 method of manuring consists in 

 addiu"-, to'(.tlver with a smaller 

 amount of dimg, some phosphatic 

 fertilizer. 



— Toxic rroperties. — 



In recent years these old-estab- 

 lished j^rinciples have been chal- 

 leu'red. and we have been asked to 

 revise the articles which con.stitute 

 this philosophy of manuring. 



The new philosophy, which has 

 been u.scd by Messrs. Whitney and 

 Cameron, of the Bureau of soils, 

 hold that all soils contain large 

 stores of the essential foods, phos- 

 phates and potash, that the water 

 in the soil — the soil solution — con- 

 tains enough of these substances 

 for the purpose of plant growth, 

 and that one soil is not more fer- 

 'tile than another because it is 

 richer in such mineral substances 

 as potash or phosnhates, but pri- 

 marily liecause it is in better case 

 to supDly the crop with all the 

 * U.S. Department of Agricultur?. 

 water which it requires. A second 

 cause of the inferior fertility of 

 certain soils is found by Messrs. 

 '\^'hitnev and Cameron to lie in the 

 existence therein of toxic sub- 

 stances produced bv the roots of 

 previous crops, and left in the soil 

 to the detriment of the growth of 

 the plants which succeed these 

 crops. 



In order to meet the objection 

 that artificial potash and phos- 

 phatic manures are known to in- 

 crease soil fertility these investiga- 

 tors urffe that the fertilizers act, 

 not by suppflying food to the plant, 



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