Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1878-01-10
CHE fartn. aud fireside.
THE CHUFA.

to the spring of 1855, when small package
of about dozen tubers was received from the
Department at Washington. They were
planted in the garden, soil very rich, and the
product, which was really wonderful, carefully
saved and planted the following spring as
field crop. And their cultivation has been
continued with the exception of two years
during the war, when the seed was lost) with
out interruption to the present time. There
fore, whatever may be said in this paper ls
the result of twenty years practical expert
ence. That experience has shown that, in
some respects, the habits of the plant here
and in Europe are widely different. For in
stance, it is represented that there the plant
grows to theheight of about three feet; where.
as, here it seldom grows to more than half
that height. Again, in the mode Of culture :
1t is there the practice, as we learn from the
agricultural report, to plant "in bunches, two
feet apart each way, ten or twelve tubers in
each, about six inches asunder;" whereas, our
experience has taught US that single tuber,
one foot apart in drill. is much better. Other
departures from the European custom have
also been found necessary in adapting it to
our American soil and climate.
While the chufa is highly relished by all
kinds of stock and poultry, its principal and
greatest value is as food for hogs..to making
pork. 1t is exceedingly nutritious, sweet, oily
and pleasant to the taste Of both man aud
beast There is no food that hogs are so fond
of, nothing on which they will grow and fatten
so rapidly, nothing on which they can be fat
tened and made into pork so cheapy. One
season, as an experiment, we planted in the
same field, sweet potatoes, peanuts, cowpeas,
and chufas. About the first of October, the
hogs we're turned into the field, with the priv.
ilege of helping themselves to such as they
liked best and Notwithstanding their we'll
known fondness for sweet potatoes and pea
nuts, they at once commenced on the chufas,
and would not touch either potatoes, peanuts,
or cowpeas until the supply of ehufas was ex-
hausted or too short to meet the demands OF
appetite. Hogs will leave corn to feed on
chufas and actual experiment has established
the fact that, pound for pound in flesh pro-
ducing qualities, the chufa is fully equal to
corn and when we take into consideration
that on a given amount of land the chufa will
produce four to six times as much as corn, the
advantage of the former for making pork is
concusively established. Land that will pro.
duce twenty-five bushels of corn to the acre,
will yield one hundred to one hundred and
fifty bushels of chufas. A busbel of chufas,
after having been washed and dried, will weigh
from forty to forty. six pounds, according to
quality of the tubers If grown in rich and
suitable soil, and property cultivated, the tu'
bers will be large and firm, and will weigh,
thoroughly dried, forty.six pounds to the
bushel, which may he considered the standard
weight. Taking this as the standard, and es
timating the yield Of corn at twenty five bush
els per acre, and that of chufas at one hun.
dred bushels (the lowest 6gure) and we have
in pounds, this result: Corn, fourteen hun.
dred pounds -chufas, forty.six hundred; be-
ing as 46 to IA in favor of chufas. On richer
lands, the produce of each will, of course, be
correspondingly greater; land that will yield
fifty bushels Of corn per acre will produce two
or three hundred bushels Of chufas, and so on
Hence, we have we'll authenticated reports of
three, four and even Eve hundred bushels of
chufas to the acre. But it is unsafe to calcu-
late on such crops. On good ordinary and
one may reasonably expect a product of a
hundred to hundred and fifty bushels, and
more than that will seldom be realized.
SOIL AND CULTURE.
By some it is claimed for chufas, as Pc
cular merit, that they will grow and produce
good crops on the poorest land )" that they
will WELD forty to fifty bushels per acre on
land cow.peas will perish in" that con land
that will produce ten bushels of corn per
acre, chufas will produce one hundred BUSH
els" We caution the farmers of the country
not to clay the Aattering JUNCTION to their
souls" that chufas can be grown with profit
on poor land. While it may be true that
they will grow and produce something on "the
poorest land" yet it is certain they will grow
better, produce more, and pay better on rich
land. Indeed, we know Of no crop that re-
ioices more heartily, exhibits more gratitude,
and pays more literally, for good soil and
kind treatment than the chufs. Rest assured
it will not pay to plant chufas (nor any other
crop, indeed,) on poor land.
The soil in which the chufa most delights
is light, loose, sandy loan, rich in decom'
posed vegetable matter. First prepare the
ground by deep ploughing aud thorough har-
rowing, leaving it mellow, with a clean,
smooth, and level surface. Then lay it off in
drills two feet apart and plant the tuhers Ia,
single tuber) one foot apart in the drill, and
cover two inches deep. One bushel of tubers
will plant an acre. The tubers will SOON
sprout and send up few slender shoots or
spikelets, when they Immediately commence
throwing out laterally, beneath the surface, in
every direction, numerous Gbrous roots on
which tubers are formed and new sh"ots sent
I'D as far as the rootlets extend, forming,
when the cropis matured, a solid mass or mat
of tubers about one foot in diameter. The
only cultivation required is, in the early
stages of growth, to keep the ground entirely
clear of grass or weeds. This should be done
by hoeing and hand wedding. They require
level culture-no hiling up around the plant.
After they shall have ceased sending up ne"
shoots, and occupy the whole ground, as they
will if the soil be rich, the crop will need no
further attention. The two all-importaut
points are, first, a thorough preparation of the
soil, without which it is useless to try to make
crop; and, second, to keep out all weeds
and grass until the plants shall occupy the
entire grounds in the drills.
Planting should be done in the spring, or
about the same time as corn, and four to FIVE
months are required to mature the crop.
When the top begins to die, you may know
that the crop is matured, and then, after saw
ing tubers enough for seed, turn in the hogs,
and they will gather the residue of the crop
for themselves as wanted. The tops may also
he utilized. Cut, say in August, when fully
grown and before the tips begin to die. They
make excellent hay, and their cutting will be
a decided benefit to the tubers, causing them
to grow larger, ripen better, and attain more