Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2013)
March. 1928.
FARMING IN SOUTH AFRICA.
A Successful Wheat Farmer.
our country imports as much as
million bags of wheat and 300,000
bags of flour and meal per annum and
when her average production is only
4 to 6 bags per morgen and that of the
Orange Free State Province only l.8
to 5 bags per morgen, it is encouraging and conducive of new hope to find
a farmer who for three successive years
has obtained a good wheat harvest,
al though only one of the years was
considered a good wheat year by his
neighbours and others in that area.
The "conquered territory" where
this farmer lives, has always been conWHEN
11
In this cont1'ibution from Mr.
Thos. D. Hall, Vice Principal,
Glen School of Agriculture, is
given, in his own words, the story
of a farmer who put sound advice
into practice, and 1'eaped the
benefit.
view of the far off blue Maluti Mountains in Basutoland, his farm is 1,200
morgen in extent and besides wheat
he also grows maize, teff, potatoes, rye,
oats, barley, lucerne, fruit and keeps
dairy cattle and sheep. His farm has
never been considered a very fertile
one, so that his achievements are all
the more praiseworthy.
The soil of the farm is typical of
much of that of the eastern Orange Free
State, a light brown to light reddish
brown fine, sandy loam, underlain by
a yellow loamy subsoil, containing
limonite concretions.
Analyses show
this soil type to contain only ahout
2-3 per cent. of organic matter and to
be low in phosphates, below average in
nitrogen; usually there is sufficieni
potash and although the lime content
is not high, yet the soil is often neutral
in reaction.
Mr. Turvey has been
getting 8-10 bags per acre and in two
different seasons got 107 and 133 bags
respectively from one sown on 10-12
acres of land.
Summary of Successful Methods.
A Comparison of Fertilized and Unfertilized Wheat.
sidered the granary of the Orange Free
State Province, but during the last
decade there has not been heard many
tales such as the early settlers told of
100 bags of wheat reaped from one
sown. The cause of this ill success has
been put down chiefly to droughts and
lice, and most farmers have never considered that their own methods might
largely be to blame. The writer has
long been under the impression that
lack of organic matter and phosphates
n'as Oile of the chief reasons for the
poor yields of wheat in the eastern
section of the Orange Free State.
In this article the story of Mr.
Turvey's methods and results will be
given in his own words as much as
possible.
Mr. C. Turvey of "rrhe
Retreat," Ladybrand district, was
once well known in this province as a
champion sprinter and lately he has
been. making new records in wheat
growlllg.
Situated a few miles north east of
Ladybrand, on rolling ground in full
His three successful successive crops
of wheat he attributes chiefly to the
practices outlined hereafter.
l. He ploughs deeply and ploughs
twice, harrows twice and gives his soil
every chance to absorb and retain
moisture and be kept free of weeds.
2. He increases the low content of
organic matter in his fine sandy loams
by growing and fertilizing cowpeas and
ploughing them under for green
manure. The rotation has, however,
not yet covered all his cultivated land
so that only a portion of his wheat has
benefited by the green manure, but
that portion has always been by far the
heaviest yielding.
3. He fertilizes his soil at the rat.e of
200 lb. per acre with superphosphate
or super- and roelcphosphate (basic
Mr. C. Turvey explains how he grew his crop.
629
March. 1928_
FARMING IN SOUTH AFRICA.
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2013)
super) or super and bone.
For late
planting and a wet season he prefers
superphosphate, but for a dry season
Basic super (super and rock mixture)
and super and bone he finds gives
better results.
From his experience
both with wheat and maize he believes
it pays to broadcast his fertilizer and
plough it under.
He has now had a
fertilizer spreader made from a plan
and directions supplied by Glen anu
finds this very satisfactory.
As will be seen from Mr. Turvey's
own statement he finds that the fertilizer more than pays for itself in the
labour saved in harvesting, as he
handles more wheat in less time and
in a smaller area, and his reapers are
better satisfied and a Iso the threshing
machine owners. He find s that he has
no difficulty in obtaining labour to
cut his wheat when he has a good
yet completely threshed, and from a
personal visit to his lands the writer
can vouch that the crop he begins
describing is his worst.
" I threshed 462 bags from 27,000
bundles of wheat planted on 106 acres
of ground with 8·} bags of seed, fertilized with basic super at the rate ot
200 lb. to the acre. At least GO per
cent. was taken by frost; considering
that, the yield was quite good and
far superior to anything else thre~heJ
in the district, excepting of COurSf,
where farmers fertilized, but most of
the unfertili7:ed stuff in the district
was not worth threshing and wagn't
a payable proposition.
Not being
fertilized the stand was weak, the
bundles small and the yield very poor.
In my opinion plallting without fertilizer is a waste of time and money and
is keeping the agricnltnral farmer
Threshing part of the 985 bags wheat crop.
stand.
From his experience of three
seasons he finds that he can agree with
the Western Australian wheat farmers
who believe that 200 lb. of superphosphate per acre on dryland wheat is
equal to five inches of rain, as the
wheat so treated stands the drought
far better.
4. He believes that most farmers sow
their wheat too thickly. When they
take to fertilizing their lands they will
find that this sowing i.e. one bag to
10-13 acres will give better results.
He has obtained in two different
seasons 104 and 133 bags from one
sown at this rate. When the wheat is
sown thinly it stands drought better,
and if there is plenty of rain ~oon
stools out.
A Heartening Narrative.
It will be better, we think, if Mr.
Turvey tells his story in his own words.
Unfortunately this season's crop is not
poor.
Far better results could be
obtained by planting half the gro;lllfl
and fertilizing at a third of the cost.
One farmer got ollly 86 bags froll)
22,000 bundles, another a bag to 800
bundles and some even worse, whereaR
my poorest stuff that was badly caught
by frost yielded over a bag and a half
to a 100 bundles. Surely, that should
open any farmer's eyes. As I said
before, I feel quite confident that. my
best stuff will yield anything from 2i
to 3 bags to 100 bundles.
"The farmers seem to forget or
don't realize that the fertilizer is given
away, not sold, as it more than pa,Y8
for itself in labour alone, apart frOlL
the increased yield.
" I say' in labour alone' and will
explain what I mean.
We will presume it takes one native to handle 100
bundles from which on fertilized
ground you can get 2 to 3 bag:; ou
half the ground at a cost of 28. 6d.
630
The unfertilized plot will require 20G
to 300 bundles to produce a ba~ of
wheat at a cost of 5s. to 7s. 6d.
Further, in loading waggollS, stacking.
feeding the machine, 100 bundle::; 0 f
fertilized stuff gives the same return
as 200 to 300 bundles of unfertilJzecl
stuff and everybody will admit that it
requires more labour and more expense
to handle 300 instead of 100 bundles. '
Again, one team of oxen can plough
say 20 morgen of ground which, if
fertilized, will give as much and pro"'
bably more than 40 morgen of ground
not fertilized. rfhe 40 morgen req uire
an extra driver an extra plough, all
extra team of oxen, to get the S::lm~
amount of wheat or less. Not only are
these benefits obtained, but the same
ground will grow double the amount
of feeding on it for stock after ~)ar­
vesting and before ploughing aga,lll.
If farmers will take all these facts
into consideration, I feel sure they will
try a plot on the improved farming
methods and prove for themselves that
they are losing every year.
" However,
when
fertilizing,
farmers often send their natives along
to do the work without first measuring
the land off into acres.
The consequence is the fertilizer is distributed
either too thickly or too thinly and
poor results and uneven ripening of
the corn is the result, and invariably
the fertilizer instead of their own carelessness is condemned.
" A simple method is to mark off the
land before ploughing so that between
each furrow you have an acre. The
native probably won't come out with
the fertilizer on the first couple of acres
but soon learns to distribute it
efficien tly.
.
" 'fhe lands on which cowpeas were
planted have not yet been threshed,
but they contain heavy fat grain.
"I suggest a slowgrowing wheat,
such as Delaware, should be pIa nted
from April 1st to 20th at the rate of
one bag to every 12 or 13 acres on
fertilized ground under favourable
conditions.
Rooi Els does not s~()ol
quite so well, but is a splendid drought
resisting variety and should be sown
in these parts about the beginning of
May at the rate of one bag to 10 acres
of ground. Rooi Lama: should not be
sown before the 15th Mayas it is ~
very quick growing wheat and Rtools
vigorously and will probably suHer
from drought if sown earlier.
It
should be sown at the same rde as
Delaware.
" My best results have been obtained
from ground on which cowpeas were
fertilized at the rate of 200 lb. supers
to the acre and then the whole crop
ploughed under.
I fed cowpeas on
another plot and althouo'h results were
better than just merely fertilizing,
they were not so good as when the
whole crop was ploughed under.
F.lnM1l\G I1\" SOl.J'DI
March, .1928.
Al'nl(;..l.
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2013)
" Better results have been obtained
by ploughing twice, but of course if
cow peas have been ploughed ullder It
is impracticable.
The g-round "hould
be ploughed at lea st 10 inches deep and
harrowed at least twice or preferably
disc-harrowed
and
then
double
harrowed with a zigzag harrow.
I
have never tried rolling the seed in,
but the results of a stand of whe,lt
which I sail" and which had been rol1ed
in was very gratifying and undoubtedly that is the best method and corred
way.
I am using a culti packer this
season and hope to break my OWl!
record if it is anything like a gocd
season. Where double ploughing is
practised the fertilizer should be hroaJcasted a fter the first ploughing a nd
then ploughed uneler to get a good root
system . " Theat likes a good, firm ,
well prepared seed beel so that a cuI tipacker or roller means full germination and a good even stanel. If the
land is ploughed onre hetter r'esuHs
it is not li a ble to clog like an ordinary
harrow and does good work.
{( " There the ground is moist and if
not fed later than 10th July , feeding
off does not do it much harm, but if
feel off later it is disast.rous. It is
also disa strous to feed off when s uffering from drought. As a rule though,
the lands that are properly worked do
not suffer from droug ht up to the 10tll
.J Illy , so it is pretty safe to feed of[
lightly until that time.
But the
stock must be confined to one a.cre at
a time and II·hen fed off should be kept
out of the acre once fed off. It is not
a good method to simply drive in the
sheep and leave them unattended, ii!<
they like the short stuff and ~\· ill keep
on feeding in the stuff that is already
fed off to nip off the young shoot.s a,~
they commence to shoot. If the wheat
is at all advanced, it is preferable to
put in dairy cattle as they ea t off the
long stuff and don't look for the shol't
stllff like ~hepp do.
III 192::) thi s Pr-ovince reaped 42,5h
morgen of wheat; had this averaged
only 12 bags per morgen it would have
done much to decrease imports., With
~he s?stem of mixed farming in vogue
Tn thlS area the wheat crop in the
l'?t.ation should be a profitable propo:>Ibon.
The fine sandy loams are
excellent for working and for retaining moisture, and in their physical
composition far superior to most of
the soils of the Cape wheat area. They
a.lso have the advantage that it is
possible to grow on them a summer
legume which will do much to build
up their fertility and make this area
reach the million bag mark.
Fertilizing of Lucerne.
THE lucerne rotation at the Potcheistroom School of Agriculture, now conduded, h as g iven some valuable information regarding t.he use of superphosphate on lucerne. Amongst other
treatments; 10 plots received 600 lb.
superphosphate per morgen annually
in spring, while 10 comparable plots
received identical treatment, but no
fertilizer. The following table gives
the ,i eld~ obta ined from 1923-24 to
1926~ZI.
Yield of lucerne hay in tons pel
morgen : -
F'ertili7.ecl.
=,,'ot Ferti ·
li zed
Th e H n.rvest.
are 0 btaina ble by discing the fertilizer
and grain in to get it lYell down int.o
moist soil, particularly if you ; nteml
grazing stock on it as it. is not apt to
pull out so easily when it is phmtecl
fairly deeply .
{( Harrowing
I"heat
during
a
droug ht does not tend to improve it
and I certainly would not recommp,ucl
it, but if the soil is moist it certainly
has a beneficial effect .
" It is absolutely es sential t.o plough
deeply and thoroughly and to harron"
at least twice to get good results,
otherwise the crop will suffer as soon
as the ground dries out, and if properly prepared it is wonderful what
amount of drought it can Rtann;
besides the lice do not have the same
chance of destroying the crop. If
badly worked the 'IV heat suffers from
drought and lice soon get the upper
hand.
" I use a springtooth hanOlv where
there is plenty of growth in a land as
" I followed your suggestions with
the improved methods of farming' and
have certainly benefited greatly an.f
more th<'tn doubled my crops. If other
farmers n·ould only re alize that I\'(.~
have still a lot to le"arn and follow the
advice of the men who know what th{;y
are talking about and who make a
proper study of farming they ·.I'oulcl
not only benefit themselves but also
the country.
Our poor yields are
simply o\yillg to rotten and slack
farming."
Profit in Wheat.
There is no doubt that with hetter
methods of cultivation, better sewl
(Glen is this year conducting several
variety trials in the dryland -;vheal
growing areas) fertilizing, seeding by
drills and more efficient harvesting'.
the eastern Orange Free Sta te could
do much to make up the present
wheat deficiency which necess!tates
importing .over one million bags {rolll
Australia.
631
11·544
7'(;Sfj
11'
1 5~
X' .~,U U
7·61 U
7 ' 032
9 '334
6·~:?
3"956
6"608
It will be seen that the fertiliz ed
plots yielded consistently higher than
the unfertilized plots, while the
average yield shows an increase oJ
2.726 tons of hay per morgen due to
the fertilizer. At an average price of
3s. per 100 lb. of hay, this represents
an increased return per morgen of
£8. 3s . 6d . on £1. 13;:, worth of superpho~pl);lte .
.
Besides the increased yields, it was
noted that, in general. the fertilized
plots were freer of weeds a.nd grass
than the unfertilized plots.
The
majority of the plots were seven years
old
when
the
experiment
was
t ermin ated anu thn~ the weeds had had
ample tirup in which to become
This hears out the
esta bh shed.
experience of 11lcernp g-ro\,ers in other
counlrie~ that on shallow soils the
longeyit.' of luC'prne may be increased
and thf' 'yielcl~ maintained by the
hl)eral application of f ertilizers.
In the Tran svaal many farmers complain that lucernt' is short-lived and
the fields quickly bpC'o me infested with
grass, It would seem from the above
th at this is 17 ery often due to shallow
and relatively infertile soils, in which
case much improvement may be effected
by the nse of fert.ilizers. especially
su perphosphate.
.