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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 79

Effects of Tillage

Effects of Tillage.

This responsiveness to a little artificial help suggested to Mr Clifton that the cultural possibilities of the soil might be greater than had been sup-posed, especially for tree growth, including orchard trees. With the approval of the Agricultural Department a little experimental cultivation was undertaken at Waerenga. Some amount of draining was done, and the plough and disc harrows were set to work so as to thoroughly break up and aerate the stiff soil. This was no easy job, for in wet weather the land was like page 5 sticky pudding, and in the dry season it got as hard as bricks. However, the effects of tillage and partial drain-age upon the condition of the soil were remarkable in a very short time. The land, with constant working instead of turning up in big, hard clods, began to get much more kindly and friable in its nature, until people who visited the place could scarcely believe that the cultivated parts of the block had ever been the same character of soil as the portions they saw which were still unimproved.