VEGETABLE CROPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21165, 23 April 1932, Page 8 (Supplement)

VEGETABLE CROPS.

SEASONABLE OPERATIONS. As the season advances with its decreasing temperaturo every assistance should he given to growing crops that will in any way help to promote more rapid and vigorous growth. In the cultivation of autumn and winter vegetables not only does the soil require to be placed in (he best possible condition for sowing and planting, but after the crops are raised the effect of frequent soil stirring ij probably never more in evidence than during the autumn and winter. This operation is not only necessary to keep weeds under control, hut for allowing tho air and warmth to penetrate and invigorate root growth. Up to the present tho soil has been in excellent condition for working, while earlier sown crops are making good growth and will need special ca.re in thinning. This operation should not be neglected until the plants become crowded and weak; otherwise, it is difficult to thin without loosening the roots of the plants left to form the crops. CABBAGES AND POTATOES. Cabbages, cauliflowers and other .of the brassica family that have been attacked, and their growth checked by the fly or cabbage aphis, may be considerably assisted by sprinkling around tho plants or rows with nitrato of soda before hoeing or earthing up. Further plantings of these made now, however, are not likely to suffer further injury from this pest. Growers of very early potatoes have already been advised to prepare their sets for sprouting. The ground in which they are to be planted, however, cannot possibly bo placed in too good tilth for the set?, and when tho soil saturation is right, it is surprising how early crops can be obtained. For very early crops, however, it is essential that tho land bo well drained, or naturally of a fairly dry nature. For this reason the most successful crops are invariably grown upon land of this character.

If planted on fairly high land having a north-easterly aspect and exposed to the very earl/ sun, or where the sun strikes tho plants immediately it comes above tho horizon, the crops are rarely affected by frosts. This applies particularly to Auckland and suburban areas. If the land is sheltered from the south and westerly winds so much the better, so long as tho plants are in no way sheltered from the early morning jun. THE PUMPKIN FAMILY. The harvesting of pumpkins, squashes, melons and marrows should be attended to as they mature and ripen. In lowlying land, or the moro southerly districts particularly that aro liable to early frosts, they should bo gathered as soon as ready and be stored in a dry sheltered place. Kumaras, too, should be lifted as soon as they are matured. RESTORING WORN-OUT SO3TW '.the present is a suitable time, when much oi the ground has been cleared of its crop?, for breaking up and dealing with any land that has become impoverished by successive cropping. In dealing with such land, the ground will require to be well manured and more deeply dug, or better still, to be trenched, to bring it again into a satisfactory condition for future cropping. It is during tho autumn when the crops have been cleared that the condition of tho soil and tho success previously attained is most in evidence, and the treatment needed to place tho ground again in a fertile condition is best known. BENEFIT OF TREIICEING. In gardens of limited area, especially wliero tho ground has been almost constantly cropped with but littlo assistance being given by manuring, trenching is by far tho best method of treatment. Otherwise, cropping cannot bo carried on successfully, for no matter how often tho ground may bo dug, if only turned up to tho depth of tho spado, a hard crust forms immediately below, which can only bo broken up and loosened by deeper working; hence the necessity of trenching. The system known as bastard trenching, or double trenching, generally proves quito efficient for the avcrago class of soils. This method consists in breaking up the soil in two good spits in depth without reversing tho position of tho surface soil and that immediately beneath it. This is the best and safest practice in all cases where tho subsoil is of a stiff clay or of an unfavourable nature. In commencing to trench, tlio soil for about two feet wido should bo dug out to tho full depth of tho surface soil, and wheeled to the opposite end, where the soil will bo required for filling up tho last when tho trenching i$ completed. Tho subsoil should be broken up to tho full depth of the spade or fork and a good coating of manure applied and worked into the subsoil. Another width should next bo marked out and tho top or surface soil turned into the trench to tako tho place of tho soil wheeled away, tbo bottom of the next trench in its turn being broken and treated as at first. In the surface soil, too, manure should bo applied, either at (lie time of trenching or immediately after, and bo thoroughly incorporated in the soil.