520 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Dec., 1901. 
Now, examine the roots of this pea plant. You see a number of little 
swellings on them. These are caused by the bacteria forming the nitrogen for 
the enrichment of the soil. You have noticed, in many parts of this State, a 
plant people call indigo. This is one of the Pea family—the Darling Pea, 
whose roots are covered with those little swellings. Now, where much of this 
plant grows, the crops thrive very well, showing that plants of the Pea family 
are most useful for adding to the soil fertility in a manner which few other 
plants can do. In the Northern canefields, when a field no longer produces 
sufficiently good crops of sugar-cane, the land is ploughed up and a fallow crop 
of Mauritius beans or cow peas is sown and afterwards ploughed in. 
Both kinds of fallowing really give the land a change, and, in one sense, a 
rest, as I explained to you before. You may have the best climate in the world, 
and the richest soil; but there must be a limit to its capacity for profitable 
cultivation. Those farmers who treat their soils with respect, who, at the 
proper period, alternate fallow-crops with cereals, and who apply the right 
fertilisers in proper quantities, find themselves far better off than those who try 
to get the very utmost out of the soil without any attention to the principles of 
good farming. 
One of the first steps in agriculture is to learn the correct treatment of 
your own particular soil. It is what every farmer must learn for himself, 
because different soils require different treatment. 
A. sour, ill-natured soil requires the stimulating effect of drainage, lime, and 
fallowing.. A rich, fat soil, on the other hand, will yield rich harvests, if tilled 
deep and well, for a long time without this assistance. Then, as you learn the 
particular nature of your soil, you will find that such knowledge is power, and 
will enable you to become a good and consequently successful farmer. 
Closely connected with fallowing is the roraron or crops, which will form 
the subject of our next lesson. 
Questions on Lesson 5. 
1. What do you understand by fallowing ? 
2. State the difference between “ bare” and “ cover-fallowing ”’? 
3. How is bare-fallowing carried out? What effect has it on the soil ? 
4. What is cover-fallowing, and what advantages has it over bare- 
fallowing ? 
5. Why did the ancient Romans and Jews fallow their land ? 
6. Is bare-fallowing advisable in a wet country? Why not? 
7. What plants are used as fallow-crops? Why ? 
8. What are bacteria? What work do they perform ? 
9. What is the reason that plants of the Pea family are useful as fallow- 
crops. 
10. What treatment does a sour, bad soil require ? 
6rn LeEsson. 
SECOND STAGE. 
The last two lessons—.e., those on manures and fallowing—were not in- 
tended for your particular study at this stage. They were to make you 
acquainted with several varieties of manures, and the different plant food they 
each contain, and also to teach you what must be done to restore the fertility 
of a so-called exhausted soil. You can always refer to these lessons as occa- 
sion arises later on. For the same reason I am now about to talk to you about 
the RotaTron of crops as a preparation for a future lesson on the subject. 
You all probably know that on the rich, fertile soils of this State there is 
such a large amount of plant food of various kinds that when a scrub farm or 
