The Farm.

Otago Witness, Issue 1230, 17 July 1875, Page 18

The Farm.

ON TURNIPS.

The cultivation of the turnip is so well known and understood, that there is very little that can be said about it that is not old and hackneyed ; but still .one cannot say that the growth of really good crops of turnips has as yet become a certainty, or a great success in Ofcago ; and this arises chiefly from the seasons, as in some years the dry weather sets in early, and the surface of the ground becomes so dry that the seeds never germinate, or, if they do, the plants are so weak from want' of moisture that they cannot get away and make that rapid growth so essential to a fair good crop of turnips. Both theory and practice have shown us, and proved most undeniably, that the turnip crop is, as it were, the mainspring of all good husbandry, and although a new country like this may and can get on for a few years, under the old system of constant cropping and one or two years' rest to the land under poor grass, while the soil is still fresh and in its pure state, still this (to the slovenly farmer) happy state of things soon wears away, and the necessity of resting the land from constant corn crops, by means of fallow or green crops, together with the working and manuring required to ensure their success, has made itself very apparent in all parts of the Province in which the 1 and has for any number of years been under cultivation. There has ako arisen in the last few years another very strong incentive to the growth of turnips and all other root crops suitable for fattening stock, and that is, the small and uncertain supply of fat stock, both sheep and cattle, all through the winter and spring months, whereby the turnip crop, in consequence of the high price of fat and the large margin of profit between store and fat stock, has for the last few years become quite as remunerative per acre as auy com crop ; and this encouraging state of things seems likely to last, as so long as the price of wool is as remunerative, or nearly so, as it is at present, so long will the squatter and large landowner stock his ground with all the sheep that it can possibly carry, in order to get as much wool as possible off it, and this pays him better than thin stocking and a few fat sheep or cattle now and then ; and, consequently, the fattening part of the business falls almost entirely into the hands of the owners of artificiitl grasses and root crops. It is thus evidently to the interest of a very great majority of the farmers of Otago to grow as great a breadth of turnips as they can possibly manage to put in in a thoroughly husbandlike manner, and to do this successfully they must both cultivate well, manure well, and take care that their seed is of good quality. All comparatively dry soils, from the poorest sand and gravel up to the richest free loams, are more or less suitable for common turnips ; while either light soils on a retentive bottom, or clayey soils upon any bottom wha+ever, are liable to make them fail, especially in dry seasons ; and soils of a comparatively heavy character, or those nearest akin to the beat wheat and

1 fan soils, are the most suitable for the Swedish turnip. As soon as the corn crop is secured, and the stock has passed over the stubble, the land should be ploughed, in order to subject the soil to the ameliorating influences of the frost of winter, and should get one or two thorough stirrings with the grubber during the winter and early spring, so as to intimately mix up and stir the soil, and encourage the growth of the seeds of sorrel and other weeds, which will then be killed while yet young and tender by the working of the land immediately before sowing. The friable, easily worked land of O.ago will in most instances, when thus worked, only require one shallow ploughing and to be harrowed down to a fine tilth to make it quite fit for drilling up at once and receiving the manure, which should be covered in as quickly as possible after being drawn out and spread on the land, as the drying winds and bright suushine of our spring and early summer weather will in a wouderf nlly short time evaporate ■ all the moisture and most esseutial parts of farm-yaTd manure. When the manure is filled in, and the drills formed, uo time should be lost in sowing the seed, and the roller should at once be passed over the drills so as to consolidate them as much as possible and keep in the moisture ; in fact, when a continuance of dry weather threatens, the work should be so laid out that on each day the drills should be opened, the manure put in and covered, and the drills sown and rolled, over such a plot of ground as the strength of the farm can manage. Although the system of sowing turnips in drills is incomparably the best in Scotland and many parts of England, still it has been found by expei'ience that the plan of sowing turnips on the flat is by far the most successful and certain method in the hotter and dryer parts of England, and this method recommends itself to the farmers of Otago, as it ensures much more certain crops, by resisting drought and the ravages of the wire worm — of which we have plenty in Otago — which will, in many parts of England, run along the whole length of the drills and eat through the roots of the turnip plants, even after they are singled out for the last time and apparently free from all risk. For both these reasons, I should recommend this system to be thoroughly tried in Otago, and am sure that ie will be found to answer well. I know of one instance where it has been always followed by a fanner from Yorkshire on what is for Otago a pretty large scale, and with invariable success, far eclipsing the crops of his neighbour* who have adhered to the drill system.