JunE 15, 1906 
Cultivation in Regard 
to Fertility. 
By Proressor ANGUS. 
It had been said that “implements made the 
best manuring.” They had had the idea at one 
time of: the chemist and biologist dominating 
agriculture, but that had, not been carried out, 
though the biology of the soil had a great deal 
to do with the growing of crops. Fertility, 
however, was’ the condition they wanted to 
bring their soil into to produco.the best yield 
at the most profitable figure. Unfortunately, 
they often stopped there, making the fertility a 
matter of the immediate present; simply,.in 
fact, in its relation to the crop just coming. 
They should bear clearly in mind the fact that 
the man who worked his soil for the immediate 
present was certainly not having an eye to the 
fertility of his land, and he would ultimately 
suffer. In the first place, land had a natural 
fertility, viz., its natural power of producing 
crops, and this might either decrease or increase, 
according to the system of treatment. That was 
really what the farmer paid for when he rented 
land; nay, even when;he bought land. Every- 
thing got from the land. beyond the natural 
results might be. called increased fertility, the 
result of .good farming and good tre tment. 
This, too, rightly belonged to the farmer, as it 
was purely and simply the product of his own 
industry. But they often found that, even with 
farms’ adjoining, the results were much better in 
the one case than in the other, With soil much 
the same, and weather and climate similar, yet 
they ‘frequently found astonishingly different 
results. What,;'tlen, was the cause of this dif- 
fereirce’? They generally found that the man 
who cultivated best and manured his land 
according to the requirements of his own various 
crops was the one who beat his neighbor as 
regards returns, and the one who from yeir to 
year was adding to the fertility of his land. . 
There were certain factors which tended to 
increase the fertility of their soils. Most of 
them, nay, all of them, might come under the 
term cultivation. Sometimes the latter term 
was misunderstood, and considered as merely 
meaning tillage, That was wrong. Cultivation 
was really the whole process of growing the 
crop, and the use of the plough, harrow, scarifier, 
and roller in the way of tillage was only portion 
of the whole process, . In the first place, there 
was drainage, which had a beneficial effect on 
the land. ‘Io be fertile land-must.be free from 
a water-logged condition. This implied that 
where water had-gone through the land air 
could follow, and this would help the soil by 
allowing the important function of oxidation 
and nitrification to go on. -These were no 
mysteries now, and farmers had come tv realise 
that unless the air got through the soil to bring 
about those actions the soil would not give the 
_best. results, and the dormant properties would 
‘not be put to use. In South Australia this part 
of cultivation, however, required very little 
attention outside of the South- Hast. 
“Secondly, there was liming. This might be 
considered a mistake by some present, but he 
might tell them that he had found few soils not 
wanting lime. For a soil to.be fertile, viz., to 
grow good crops, it must be free from all injuri- 
ous and sour acids. That freedom was brought 
about by the use of Jime, which conyerted these 
properties into a condition not injurious to plant 
hfe. In another way pure lime had a very 
marked effect on'tlre soul, in which was stored 
What was unavailable or dormant foodyand in 
4 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
order to make this of any use to the plant it 
must be converted into the available condition, 
viz., one in which it was possible for the plant 
to take it up. 
It had been asserted in America of recent 
years that all soils contained suflicient plant 
food to provide for a normal crop from year to 
year if the plant food were converted into the 
available condition, and one of the great factors 
in converting nitrogenous and potash composi- 
tions into. their available condition was ;Jime. 
Although at first sight it might seem asif liming 
was hardly a part of cultivation, they would on 
consideration recognise how important a factor 
it was in the cultivation of the farm. That was 
where virgin soil came in. The available food 
vanished, and the other was unavailable fill the 
lime helped to liberate the forms and make food 
available for the plant, which could not take it 
in till it assumed a nitrate form, which was 
encouraged and made possible by lime. The 
term cultivation included all the processes 
during the growing of the crop, tillage being 
only a part of the whole. a 
Thirdly, there was proper tillage, which, moro 
than anything else, had its effect on the fertility 
of the land. While they all might consider 
their own tillage system the best in use at 
present, he trusted that they realised all could 
be improved upon. In the first place, tillage to 
be proper and effective must be cleanly; for the 
farmer to ellow his land to get filthy was simply 
to allow all the most available plant food to be 
taken up by weeds. In the second place, culti- 
vation and tillage to be effective must aim at 
conserving the moisture, especially in such a 
climate as this, Everything must be done to 
keep the fallow land moist. It was estimated 
that with good fallow four inches of rainfall 
could be conserved. The most effective way to 
get rid of this moisture was, of course, to grow 
a good crop of:weeds on the fdlow In the 
third. place, that brought them to the question: 
of deep and shillow ploughing. Much depended 
on what was to be sown, wheat and barley, for 
instance, being totally different in their require- 
ments under this head. The latter was a shallow 
plant, while the wheat roots had been traced as 
deep as 26 ft, in the soil. With deep-rooted 
crops it was necessary to do something more 
than scratch the soil. It did not matter how 
much land they held; they cculd not make the 
best use of it by scratching the soil. As an 
example, they might note the effect of deep 
ploughing and subsoiling on the production of 
root crops in the old country. It wasa mistaken 
idea that deep ploughing tended to the dissipa- 
tion of moisture and its consequent waste. On 
land with a retentive subsoil they should never 
go in for shallow ploughing. Deep ploughing, 
however, must be a gradual process. It would 
be folly to deep plough all at once. If, for 
instance, they had been cultivating to a depth 
of 3} or 4 in. for twenty years, it would be fatal 
to-increase the depth 2% in. at a time. The 
deepening process must be extendel graduilly 
year by year, from } to $ in., and. so to awine 
by degrees, In this way the suil would become 
beautifully mellowed. Where the subsoil was 
retentive the water was held below, and deepen- 
ing the soil wonld assist the plant in gouing to 
that water, encouraging what is kuowu as 
capillary attraction. Where the soil and suo 
soil were of a mure porous nature, then deep 
ploughing was not-to be recomended. On 
land of this nature anything over four inches 
was too devp, for by deepening in such cises as 
that it would encourage the teo free percolation 
of water through the soil. The whole pro. ess 
of tillage had tor its object cleantiness, c m-er- 
vation of muistuee, anu the producilos of tine 
tilth. So fae as the latter wes concerned «t wos 
necessary: for the proper germination of see t, 
They wauted the suil to be tise aul SPUNZY, 59 
as to lie close and press upon the seed, and that 
the films of moisture lying about the particles 
of soil might bring about that mysterious process 
known as germination, : 
To bring about proper tilth’ on many soils 
was a difficult. matter, and repéated turns of th 
cultivator, harrow, and roller must be reserte: 
to. He was surprised to find so little use made 
of the harrow and roller, and that brought him 
to another point. After breaking down, the soil 
in order that germination might be encouraged 
and a firm, close bed secured for the seed, he 
would impress on them the necessity of using 
the roller after the covering harrow: -This,was 
a practice almost out.of use in South Australia, 
‘but one that in the old country was considered 
an essential to good tillage. If the: soil got 
encrusted by the use of the rollor a turn of the 
harrow after the wheat was up would do the 
crop no harm so far as pniliug it up was con- 
cerned, but rather gave it fresh stimulus to good 
growth, In Australia they had not yet fully 
grasped the idea of rational rotation. and had 
not sufficiently realised what the crops take 
from the soil of its substance. ,, The three most 
important properties were phosphates, nitrates, 
and potash. ‘The following table shows the 
amount of soil ingredients withdrawn by vatious 
crops (in pounds per acre) :— iM vtiedeesch 
Phosphoric” 
Potash. Lime. thea Nitrogen 
Grain, 29 bushels .. 785 ‘72, -:11°90 24°00. 
Straw, 3.600 lb 36:07 19°32 7:90 — 18°00- 
Hay, 4,800 Ib n 43°92 11°04 19°80 42°00 
Lucerne, 1,209 Ib°. 161°38 274°32 77°16 155:52° 
Sugar beet, 74,000 Ib « 887°44 22408 116716. 173°4 
The following table showed the approximate 
‘losses of fertilising materials from’ different 
systems of farming :— 
Phosphoric __ + 
Nitrogen. Acid. Potash 
All grain farming «- . 5,610) 500 4,200, 
Mixed grnin and yeneral .. 2,690 1,000 T,000- 
Mixed potatoes and general 33 1.000 2,400 
Stock and genefai « «6 90 iy ey 
Dairy farming .. ose 800 25,5. 85. 
He could not. do better than at that stage 
reply to the question which ha: been asked hun 
already that week: ‘‘ What would be the effect 
on the fertility of the soil of the continued use 
of phosphates?” To that he might, reply by 
asking :—1. What could the farmer do but add 
phosphates? 2, Had he benefited by it, viz., 
had it paid him? 3. Was-there any other way 
of treating land to givejsimilar returus 4, Was 
land decreasing in fertility by its use? To that 
he might answer in the negative except in a fow 
cases, but he feared that. eventually land would 
become less fertile from the want of potash,a 
nitrogen, and in order to keep its’ fertility it 
would be necessary for farmers to add these two 
manures along with the phosphates, _ In older 
countries, where farmers were not dealing with 
what they called virgin soil, they had to add not 
only phosphates, but potash and nitrogen: 
K. Bechtel, 
Truss and Bandage Maker, 
5) O’Connell-street, 
NORTH ADEL IDE’ 
Trusses, Bandages, 
Kneecaps, Leather Jackets, 
Shoulder Straps, &c., 
Made to Order, 
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femmes () 5, 
A Trial sobcited. 
