PUTTING IN SPRING CROPS.

Marlborough Express, Volume C, Issue 217, 20 September 1911, Page 2

PUTTING IN SPRING CROPS.

(By W.S., in Auckland Herald.)

Now that the weather1 is getting warmer and the land in good order for putting in spring crops, this work should be* pushed ..on with as much speed as possible. To get crops^ in early usually means success, while with late sown crops there is always a big risk of the crop failing. The chief cause of this is that the plants get dried up before they get a- deep enough root into the ground to withstand the late spring and summer weather. Land tha^ has been ploughed early will retain moist.ue better than that which has been ploughed late. If it has been previously skimmed, and is to be crossploughed, this should be done as soon as 1 circumstances will permit. The sooner it is done the better will bo the result. Grass land intended for turnips, if not already ploughed, should be turned over without delay, so as to allow the. turf to become partly decayed before commencing to work it down, for a seed-bed. Mangold land should get its final ploughing, which should be deep and; thorough, as this crop thrives best on a deep furrow, even "up' to. .eight .inches where the land is deep, enough, to allow, of sudh> iaj^tiya-tion'<; ■ Bem.ij; som'ewluit diffls*WsU*G-'Iturnips,1turnips, ..although these-"tw^fvetotsi are Lofton classed with ' each', '©the*, mangolds are altogether a different crop, botii in botanical relationship, habits of life, and requirements. Turnips require a fairly light, or, at any rate a fairly open soil to come to perfection, therefore they do not grow so well on stiff, clayey land; furthermore, they flourish well on shallow soils. Mangolds, on the other hand, •are impatient of light, gravelly soils, and always do better on strong land, and, being deep rooting plaoits, require & considerable depth of soil if they are to become luxuriant. The 'turnip has not the same root-power to seek for its food. The mangold produces an immense mass of fine rootlets, that extend downwards to the subsoil and upwards to the.surface to a considerable distance from the plant. The patch selected for mangolds should, if possible, be on the deepest part of the farm, one acre of good mangolds being more profitable than two or three acres of medium small sized. The expense of working the mangold crop is an item worth careful consideration. Any means that will lessen the labor will, ot course, minimise the expense, and us a light or medium crop is almost as expensive to work as a. full crop, it is essential, tbat a good piece of land should be chosen^

VALUE OP MANURE. Mangolds, being gross feeders, always yield profitably to liberal dressings of manure in an available form. Farmyard manure, where it can < oe. got, is most beneficial, and where tho mangold plot is not too exten&ire, ac--1 cording to the size of the rarm, enough stable manure might be savsd and. applied to this patch, and should be spread over the land before tha first ploughing;' then, when it is cross-ploughed the manure will ye sufficiently rotted, and will mix well with the soil, and so will be more .evenly distributed. By this means the general fertility of, the land will be obtained. If farmyard manure is ,not available, we must resort to artificial fertilisers clone, such ss blood, superphosphate and kaimt, vi 1 equal proportions. I would like to point out the value of t*™*** i manure. Many of our New Zealand farmers do not seem to .realise the ! true value of this most important addition to the land. . Certain it. is that the heaviest dressings of artificial manures do not increase the yield' »o the same degree as heavy dressings ot dung, though after lea the effect ot 1 dung is not so marked as > after a cereal crop. Another vevy•important, item in connection with -the use .of farmyard manure is that it, helps to retain moisture. This is most important in New Zealand, as we often experience dry springs «md summers. In many parts where fa,rm experiments have been tried for the pur- ; pose of ascertaining the value of farmyard manure, the experimentalists one and all have come to the conclusion that it does- not pay to grow mangolds without it. A FRENCH METHOD.

In France the excellent practice is adopted of ploughing up the stubble or lea land after harvest, working up a seed-bed right away, and drillins in vetches with superphosphate , with a view to getting a green crop to be ploughed in with a deep furrow early in the winter. The land is, of course, enriched in nitrogen, of which mangolds are especially appreciative. The organic matter so secured helps the crops, as nitrification proceeds in the following summer. ,If farmyard manure is to be used it is spread on the green crop before ploughing in. There are two considerations which make one hesitate to follow this practice here: First, the high price of vetch seed; and, second, the fact that the birds pall the newly-braided plant so persistently ; further,. that our harvest is later than it need be, as we dread to have crops ripening before our neighbors by having them sown in good season, less they become, when ripening, the spoil of all the sparrows in the" district. Accordingly, the weight of green crop to bo ploughed under in June is relatively small. When practical, however, this mode of enriching the soil for mangolds deserves consideration. Partridge pc-is form a good substitute for vetches fe>; green manuring. The advantages aro that the cost of seed is less, and on land that is favorable there will be a greater bulk to be ploughed under. A crop of peas is first harvested off the land. Then, promptly after harvest, the yea stubble is skim ploughed. There is usually a good seeding on the laud tt-fter the crop has been harvested, and these seeds will grow through the light skim furrovv, and will form a bulky crop to ha, ploughed under in winter and let lie until spring, when the land can bo cultivated and worked down to a fine tilth. This is a cheap way of procuring nitrogen—firstly, by that which is drawn from the »ir and deposited in

the roots and stubble of the pea crop ' that is ploughed under in the autumn, , and, secondly, by the nitrogen stored j up in the nodules on the roots of the 1 second or'self-sown crop, and, thirdly, t by the large bulk of rich organic matter produced by this second crop of peas, which, is "invaluable to the ensuing ci-ops. Where this method'■ ©an be practised good crops of man- ' golds may be "grown on moderately poor soils, where otherwise it would be folly to attempt their culture. j