OUR COMMON CROPS.

North Otago Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2157, 2 April 1879, Page 3 (Supplement)

OUR COMMON CROPS.

THE TURNIP. The turnip (botanically known as Brassim rapa)> forms a most important feature in modern agricultural, especially in connection with stock raising and grazing. The great enemy of the turnip ia the fly (altica nemomvi), which is particularly destructive in dry weather. Anything that will cause quick vegetation in the turnip plant, has the effect of preventing the attack of the fly, as when once the turnip has put forth is rough leaves it ia considered safe from its attack. Broad-cast sown turnips are naver as safe from the fly, aa those sown in drills, and for this reason, that the fields are seldom manured previous to sowing. The best practice is to plough in October, and harrow and roll the land ; then in the middle of November to drill in the seed with dry manure, composed of one part of bone dust to six of burned tussocks, rubbish and earth. The Reeves horsedrill — the same class of implement used by Mr Mark Dale of Canada farm, Tokomairiro — would prove the most serviceable. Bone dust has the property of favoring the growth of the turnip, and it would not be difficult to procure, as there are any quantity of refuse bones in Waitaki County, and sufficent mill machinery to give the required power for crushing them. For example, Mr Bruco at Teaneraki, might set up a bone mill in connection with his flour mills, and there is not the slightest doubt of his obtaining the hearty support of the farming community around him, and making a remunerative thingof it, just as Mr George Wilson, saw miller of Milton, Tokomairiro, has done. Ounce, show farmers how they can secure a good return of turnips for their sheep and cattle, and a good bone trade will be the result.

SANFOIST. Sanfoin (Hedysaruin onobriehis) is a plant of the family of the Leguminosoe, and is a native of the south of Europe, where it grows luxuriantly owing to the calcareous soils which abound. It ii a great and sure fertiliser of poor and thin calcareous goils, and in richer soils containing limt deposits, it is superior to

oloyer or covrgrau, giving a lars»r return with ft smaller expenditure of labor. | The plant has a strong fibrous root which finds its way down into tha hardest and strongest of subsoils, and even into the fissures of the bed rock, obtaining moisture in the driost seasons, aud spreading out its roots in a way which prevents the earth from being washed down the aides of steep cullies where it has been sown, thus adding to its value as a maintainer and fertiliser of the natural soil. It is almost a perennial, yielding for nine or ten year» in snccesssion, and is particulnrv adapted for high rolling downs, as it binds the soil tocrether. In favorable situations, such a* may be found in the Pipakaio, Awamoka, K»kanui, Totara, Waiarekn. Moeraki. Palmerston, Hawk«bury, and Ngapara districts, it may be cut twice a year for hay. or oftener as a green I fodder. In the most arid and exposed ■ittia'ions it yi-lds one crood crop of hay. It gr.iws about two feet in height, the stem branches out into many compound leaves, and is crowned with a beautiful spike of flowers of the papilionaceous order. After cutting, it rapidly shoots out again and may be advantageously depastured by sheep, which give it an excellent natural top dressing, and causes it to produce A splendid return in early spring pastures the next season, or a good hay crop. It should alwav* be cut for hay in early flowering. Sanfoin is usually sown with oats or barley in the spring. The grain should be sown thin, in order to prevent its smothering the young sanfoin. The best method of preparing the land for its reception is to turnip it, and feed it off with sheep. This pretty effectually cleans the soil of weeds, and pufs it into good heart. About 4 bushels of sanfoin seed to the ncre is sufficient. After the grain crop is harvested, which is grown with it is a good practice to put the cultivator through it to destroy the weeds. If it is cut the first year, a three inch stubble should be left because the crown of the root in the young plant lises above the ground, and to cut it would be to destroy it, for the same reason sheep must not be depastured on it the first year. Seed may be taken from the second years' growth. To the grazier, sanfoin forms one of the safest and best fodder plants, which it is possible for him to produce. On such estates as those of Redcastle, Totara, Elderslie, Awnmoa, and Windsor Park, nothing could conserve more beneficially to the interests of their proprietors as breeders and graziers than the introduction of sanfoin. On thoso farms which are suffering from exhaustion of the soil, or whose lands are thin and gravelly, this plant will in the course of a few yeart give sufficient heart to enable them to produce a number of good crops, without the addition of any other manure. Careful rotation however, should be adopted to prevent the- exhaustion of lands improved by sanfoin, and to enable them to produce with profit after a lapse of nine or ten years another succession of ■anfoin. Sanfoin seed affords excellent food for horses, so that if the seed market should happen to be overstocked with it, it may be advantageously used for that purpose. The seed return to the acre is very often from 35 to 40 bushels. It is generally thrashed ont by a machine, and winnowed by the ordinary process, like corn. When cutting it for seed it should be carefully watched after the 'blossom fades, as the lower pods will he filled with seed before the top ceases to blossom, or the seed is formed in them, if the sanfoin be left until the seed is formed in them, the lower pods will shed. Fine weather should be selected for taking the seed, as rainy weather is most injurious to the crop. Irrigation will cause this plant to yield from four to five crops of green feed per annum. In reviewing this subject, we find that there are few known agricultural plants which could be so advantageously produced in this country ; because the soils are til more or less calcareous, and few plants indeed are better calculated to renew exhausted soils, or improve thin and stoney ones. In travelling throughout Otago and Canterbury, one is struck with the general system of farming adopted, by comparing it with that of older countries, and is led to the opinion that there is a great want of system, order and economy in regard to our agricultural method of cultivation. There, are however, exceptions to this general rule, and from this we learn that in the course of time a better system of agriculture will spring into existence, and all the advantages of our splendid climate and fertile soil will be brought into play, so that by and bye our large breeding stations will not be obliged annually to sacrifice large numbers of sheep at nominal prices every year, because their agricultural system is so deficient that they cannot find them food enough to fatten them for the city meat market. This is practically the reason why store sheep are sold off large estates, where there should be abundance of food for six tooth and lull mouthed iheep, and it is also the reason why horned cattle bring low pricei in our sale yards, because small farmers follow in tbe path of large ones.