t Tin, 1900.} QUEENSHAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 177 
amber or receptacle is filled. On other farms, there are steaming apparatuses 
| the cooking of small potatoes or any kinds of roots, and these may be 
| Utlised for the steaming of straw chaff also, or in the event of there being any 
) Asty hay in the stackyard, even although it be perfectly white with must, if 
4 and pressed into a steaming apparatus, it will come out purified with 
|, ©self-same agreeable aroma straw is possessed of after being steamed. Small 
- mers who could not afford to buy a steaming apparatus have been known to 
) Mice a disused cask over an ordinary furnace, the bottom having been previously 
| Petforated with gimlet holes. With the furnace filled with water, and chaff 
F Messed tightly into the cask, it only requires to ignite the fire and raise the 
i ee in the furnace to boiling point to make volumes of steam rise through 
| chaff to bring about the same beneficial change the steaming apparatus 
| Would effect, 
; of The Scotch are exceedingly fond of mixing up messes for horses and cattle, 
‘which straw chaff often forms the principal ingredient. Steeped in boiling 
i i. T, even bean straw, the most nutritious of all the stalks of cereal and 
ous crops, becomes softened and digestible. Bean or pea straw cooked 
' Small potatoes or other roots, and having bran, pollards, or meals added, 
1 be converted into excellent rations for live stock. — 
| 4 RATIONAL MANURING. 
| APE 
ql RTILTSER alone will not ensure a good crop; for the fertiliser that feeds the 
| ‘nt also feeds the weeds. Therefore a more perfect cultivation will be neces- 
oe An abundance of plant food, a careful cultivation, and a favourable 
‘on must all unite to produce a rich harvest. 
Yery crop removes from the soil a portion of the plant food contained 
. “Continuous cropping will, in time, exhaust the richest soil, unless the 
| ™er restores to it the nutritive elements that have been removed. 
Agricultural chemistry has demonstrated that plant-life calls imperatively 
ae tee prime forms of food. These three are phosphoric acid, potash, and 
fro °gen. The annual products of the farm (milk, grain, grass, roots, &c.) remove 
af eke soil large quantities of nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid. A. portion. 
| the €se food elements is returned to the soil in the form of stable manure, but 
be Yemainder have been lost, and the productive capacity of the farm can only 
| “Aintained by the use of commercial fertilisers. 
Dota, uriate of potash is the cheapest form of potash, and is the best source of 
| Tae except in special cases, where chlorine may injure the quality of the crop, 
| Dota, i tobacco and oranges. ‘For such crops, sulphate of potash or sulphate of 
| ‘inte Magnesia should be used. Kainit is another form of potash salt, con- 
| fon s8 Chlorine, and is specially valuable upon sandy soils. It is valued not only 
hee fertilising properties, but for its power of destroying insect life and curing 
isease. As regards its application to strawberries, Mr. A. H. Benson, 
| ity, ctor in Fruit Culture, says that, if applied broadcast to strawberry plants, 
| 4 Ould burn the leaves more or less, especially if they were at all damp at the 
| Sof application. In Queensland, the growth of the strawberry is so rapid 
| t ‘is always advisable to apply any manure that may be required by the plants 
nop 2 Soil before planting, so that it may be at once available. Top dressing is 
| ‘9 Satisfactory. 
| ith Vood ashes are also a valuable source of potash, but the amount contained 
| y°M is small and variable. The most important materials for supplying 
°gen which are largely used in the composition of commercial fertilisers are 
‘t oe 
Bee Owing: Nitrate of soda and sulphate of ammonia, in which the nitrogen 
| there; 
| top a Soluble and available form. Nitrate of soda is particularly adapted for 
} tein ts during the growing season, and is the quickest acting nitrogenous 
the; Leguminous crops, such as peas, beans, lucerne, vetches, clover, &c., cather 
SUeh Nitrogen from the air; hence an application of nitrogenous fertilisers to 
ops is unnecessary. 
