NEW TURNIP DISEASE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17954, 5 June 1920, Page 9

NEW TURNIP DISEASE

OUTBREAK IN SOUTHLAND.

(Fbom Oob Own Corhehpohdkkt.) nSTVERCAROILL. June 4. Tho appearance of a d:sea£o in soft turnips, new to Southland, is causing the Department of Agriculture in Invercargill some anxiety, and specimens of the turnips affeo.ed by the disease have been forwarded to Wellington. The disease made its appearance in a small crop owned by a farmer nOar Mataura, and has practically ruined 50 per cent, of his soft turnip crop. The disease did not affect swedes, unless they happened to be growing among tho soft turnips, showing that the soft turuins were more susceptible to attack. The form the disease takes is to attack the bulb and oausie a cancerous growth which looJjs most repulsive, and which, harbours numerous maggots, which cat the bulb, cornpletelv destroying its food value. In many of the turnips affected the tops, when pulled, como away like a skull oap. leaving a bulb that was simply a mass of pus, in which numerous maggots existed. It was evident from the specimens forwarded that the disease originated in the soil, as the infection invariably commcneed on the external part of the bulb, at or below the ground line. The tops and roots were little affected, and the latter were strong and healthy at the top. The area infected with the disease is one in which, turn ins were grown last season without any sign of disease.