Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/219

 most out of it. It stands to reason that the earth must become exhausted after a long course of cropping, just as a tree will become worn out and cease to bear after many seasons of bearing without attention. I have heard young farmers say that they did not believe manure affected the crops. I was at the moment advocating a course of bone manure, and suggesting that, as he could not buy bone dust, he should bury all the bones he could find about his fruit trees and grape vines. He did not see how the bones could do good, or that they would ever become dissolved. A young apricot tree was near us, so I said gather up half a dozen bones now, open up the roots of this tree put them in and cover again. In six months' time come and look at your bones. He did as I directed, laughing sceptically all the time, while, no doubt, thinking to himself "How can a woman know anything about farming." It was nearly three years before I chanced upon him again to ask about the bones, and then he had forgotten all about the matter, but he came to see me a week later and brought in a paper a small portion of what was left of the bones; it was nearly dust crumbling at the touch. "Had the tree done well in the meantime?" I asked. "Well, it has not borne yet, it was too young, but it looked grand, and would bear next year," he expected.

If there are many of my readers who do not believe this, let them try it. Collect a few old bones and if you have any grape vines, or indeed any growing vine or tree and bury them under one and in a year or two come and look at them, and you will find them gradually being eaten away by the roots of the vine or tree. Such crops as corn, oats, potatoes, require the crushed bone manure, bones buried beneath them would not be affected, but would take many years to decay. Possibly, like my friend the farmer, you are wondering how I, a woman, know all this. Simply because I was told it by a very old and successful farmer on the Hunter River, and also because I tried it to convince myself, just as I have tried every recipe in this book.

Ploughing, cross-ploughing and harrowing are in some instances a partial substitute for manuring, because by so stirring and opening up the earth it is rendered more fit for absorbing the chemical properties of the rain, and also the atmosphere. As both the air and the rain water effect strange and, to our eyes, quite imperceptible changes in the ground when the two are brought together, just as soda and acid will fiz, or effervesce, when put together in water. So doubtless some such change takes place in the earth when the rain falls upon it. You may be quite sure that not only the rain, but the frost, the sunshine, the dew, all affect the earth in some wonderful way and help it to produce. Some crops ex-