NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3713, 12 May 1925, Page 12

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Asked the other day whether it was best to grow swedes, turnips, or Manuring tno mangolds, and which was Root Crop. the best manure to use on the average soil, the writer 1 confessed his inability to reply in a sentence or two. Local conditions and climate, as well as the texture and fertility of the soil, all crowd in as factors which must influence one’s reply. All three crops have the same habits of growth and require the same general preparation of the land, but when their manurial requirements are considered there is a difference. Swedes and turnips belong to the same family, and have similar needs, but mangolds belong to a distinctly different order of plants and require different treatment. In New' Zea-, land it is little use recommending dressings of dung, because it is such a scarce commodity. If available, however, swedes could do with more dung than turnips, in addition to a hundredweight or two of superphosphate. The udvantage of using dung lies in the fact that the nitrogen therein contained forces . along a quick growth in the early stage of the swede or turnip plant, and may outstrip the ravages of the “turnip fly.” The swede crop should have more generous treatment as regards manuring than the turnip, and the mangold more than the swede. Compared with the latter, the mangold requires more dung and less phosphates and potash, but much more nitrogen. Once the mangolds are thinned they can be bustled along with a top-dressing of some soluble nitrogenous manure, like, say, nitrate of soda. In addition, it is a common-sense practice to broadcast before the land is cultivated for mangolds a hundredweight, or two of salt, or even kainit. Finally, it iB more satisfactory to thoroughly handle a small aroa and make a good job of the cultivation and fertilising

than tackle a large area and give it half the consideration. Who would not sooner have a 50-ton crop to the acre than 25 tons per acre and double the acreage? AGRICOLA.