ROTATION OF CROPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 3, 3 July 1941, Page 15

ROTATION OF CROPS

Ground which grows the same kind of crop year after year becomes impoverished of the elements jvhich go to build up the plants. Each group of plants uses rip certain food materials and, as these cannot be replaced with manures, crops should be alternated in successive seasons. Root crops such as carrots may be followed by peas and beans, and these by cabbages and cauliflowers, etc. Potatoes may follow onions, for which the ground has to be heavily manured. And so on, never using the,one plot for the same class of vegetable in following seasons. The only exception to the rule is onions, which do not seem to deteriorate when grown on the same land year after year, if plenty of manure is used for each crop.

Cabbages, cauliflowers, and others of that family, of which, by the way, turnips are members, are very apt to get "club-root" or "finger and toe" disease if grown for more than one season on the same ground. Where this disease is prevalent a heavy dressing of lime should be given. It is said that in ground rich In lime these crops will never be affected with "club-root."

' All vegetable plots benefit by a good dressing of lime—say, half a pound to the square yard—every second or third year. This adjusts the soil conditions while liberating* potash and other plant foods: Lime also does much to cleanse the soil of diseases and insect pests.

deadly fungus disease called "ink disease," which first shows itself in the form of ink-like stains on the outer coat of the bulbs. Soaking for about two hours in a solution of formalin at a strength of one part in 300 parts of water seems to check the disease. Very badly affected bulbs should be destroyed and the ground from which they were lifted should not be replanted for some time. Shelter from wind is advisable for such earlyflowering bulbs, and it is impossible to say that any particular soil is more suitable than another. The bulbs appear to be most capricious, and, except that humus in some form may with advantage be added to very poor soil, no directions can be given. With care the bulbs can be moved successfully when in flower. This enables seedlings and "chance mixtures to be sorted out, a process which is extremely difficult later on, when the foliage has died down and the position of any particular bulb in a group can no longer be ascertained. The flowers are borne on stalks from four inches to six inches long but the foliage is much longer. These bulbs are excellent for the rockery or for pot culture and might be tried- in fibre.