LIME AS A MANURE FOR TURNIPS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXVI, Issue 169, 23 July 1890, Page 4

LIME AS A MANURE FOR TURNIPS.

Writing to the editor of the Otago Daily Times Mr Thos. BrySon Bays :— Lime is well known to the' farmer ?&s being .beneficial for pasture land '-and) (for grain crops, but it is not often supplied ito turnips, and as the .result has been very successful, I have much pleasure in-giving farmers the benefit of the experiment. I have had a strong impression for many years that much of the land south of Dunedin, and especially m Southland, would benefit by the use of lime, and we tried it several times on ..Edenddle' with satisfactory results for grass and oats, but the price of the lime and the railway carriage made the use of it prohibitory,Recently, however, both have, been considerably reduced,' although still 1 too high, and last spring we determined ito ; give liming a trial on a larger scale than hitherto, the result of which is given m the following extract from the annual report of our Edendale manager : — Last year we limed 200 acres at a cost of £460 14s 6d. Lime cost £221 3s 4d, railage £163 13s lid, carting' and spreading £75 13s 3d, clearing couch grass £36 13s 2d extra. This seems a heavy outlay, but there is such a magnificent crop bf^ turnips after the lime that the cost will be repaid twice over this year, and then there is the permanent good the land will derive from the lime. Ten acres m the.-pad-dock were left unlimed, with the result that we had no turnips, although; they had exactly the satae labour, seed, ' and bonedust. The crop after, the lime is worth £5 an acre, and if we had used no labor (lime?) it would not have paid the cost of the cultivation. The railway carriage is still too high on 'lime*' arid"r hope to see it reduced. I may explain that the paddock is situated near the Edendale railway station; and was considerably out of order through coiicnand other objectionable grasses; and we thought the best way of clearing* it would be to grub out the couch grass' as well as we could and then lime and man* ure the ground well, so as to produce a' good crop of turnips. Accordingly the ground was well worked, and .2 tons of lime and 3 cwt of bonedust applied. The turnips were sown partly m drills and partly broadcast, but 10 acres— an average of the land — was left unlimed. .The turnips on the drills and broadcast are a splendid crop ; but although the 10 acre patch got 3 cwt of bones there are almost no turnips. I may say, however, that we have good crops m other paddocks without lime, but not equal to limed ones. Next year I intend increasing the quantity of lime and reducing the bonedust'; but if the cost of the lime and the railway carriage were reduced a little further we would, use lime more largely. Very few farmers can|aff ord to expend £2 an acre for manuring the land, although they may fell satisfied that it would paywell to do so, and I think the railway commissioners might see their way to carry agricultural limp, at a nominal rate especially as the railway has to bring bo many empty timber trucks back to Southland past Milburn. Then they should also bear m mind that the use of lime increases the crop by 15 to 20 bushels an acre, and the feeding capacity of turnips and grass m still greater proportion, the bulk of which increase would be carried by the railway; and generally farmers wouldbecome mbreprosperous and benefit the whole community. We have only to look .at what the Tokomairiro Plan was a few years ago and what it is now by the application of lime. Then it grew sorrell arid Yorkshire fog — now it produces excellent crops of wheat and turnips and grass which fattens instead of starves the stock.