The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1900-09-22

ROOT CROPS ON THE FARM.
Turnips and Rutabagas Should be
Grown Much More Extensively-
than They Are.

lily gardeners and dairymen CT the
south will plant their crops of turnips
and rutabages, two vegetables which
are largely used throughout the south,
and yet which should be grown much
more extensively than they are. 1t is
a crop which usually finds ready sale
in the towns and cities, SO that the
market gardeners find it profitable to
plant the crop on a considerable scale,
in places where they can obtain a To-
cal market.
For this crop. as for all others, pure
and reliable seed should be obtained
from honest seedsnien. Every year we
find in the catalogues Of unreliable
dealers. exaggerated representations,
extravagant claims and exorbitant
prices for some so-called new ana SUI
perior sort. Such claims should be re-
garded with suspicion as the much
preised variety usually proves to be
some old sort under new name, or,
worse still, degenerate and utterly
worthless variety.
For table use and market, the Pur-
pie Top Strap Leaf and the White Flat
Dutch are among the best of the fiat
varieties. OF the globe-shapcd kinds,
the Purple Top Globe, Pomeranian
White Globe, Golden Ball ard Snow
ball are all excellent sorts. The White
Egg, a pure white, egg-shaped turnip
is one of the finest for table Use, being
very sweet, tender and free from any
strong flavor or hitter tsste. New
land is considered best for turnip cul-
ture, but first-class crops can be raised
on old land if it is properly prepared.
The practice of cow-penning land
which is to be used for turpips is very
common in the south, and is an excel
lent means of fertilization, and the
treading and firming of the sandy soil
is also an advantage. This crop is q
comparatively light user of nitrogen,
and in fact on land which is rich in
nitrogen, this element Icay well be
omitted from the fertilizer, as too
much of it will make the crop woody,
and unfit for use, and also tends to
produce tops, instead of roots. A good
fertilizer formula is as fellows:
Nitrogen ..................3 per cent.
Potash per cent.
Available phosphoric acid. 81 per cent.
Using this formula, from 400 to 500
r:rnds per acre, drilled in, will be suf-
ficient. Soggy land should not be used
for turnip crop, and low muck land,
as rule, will not produce turnip fit
for table use, though satisfactory
enough to grow crop fer stock feed.
Turf ip seed is sown at a time in the
south when the summer heat is most
trying on seed termination, and when
the hot sunshine is APT to follow close
upon the heavy beating showers of the
rainy season, and when insect life is
L ost plentiful and active. On account
of these causes, the planter often fails
to Sc cure good stand, and the failure
is frequently laid TO the fault of the
seed, when more often than not, the
trouble is due to some ere of the
causes mentioned above. The ''turrip
fiea,' tiny insect, hardly large enough
to be seen, frequently destroys an en-
tire planting of turnips before the
plants have appeared above ground,
sIlu IO tTdC- Is lclt 10 SnCW WEdt
caused the failure OF the seed 10 show
up above ground. This is one of the
most common causes of failure in OBJ
tanning stand of plants from sum-
mer sowings. Again, the young plants
are frequently destroyed before they
have shown above ground by being
scalded, the result of hot sunshine on
the earth after shower. Again, hot,
dry spell, following the germinatior Of
the seed il very apt to bake the start
iEg plants, and so prevent "a stand. The
writer of this article has shown four
sowings to be made from a pound of
turnip seed without obtaining stand,
and at the end of the fourth planting
the planter was positive that the seed
was utterly worthless. He made fifth
sowing, however, and got perfect
stand, thus showing that the seed
were all right, and that his four fail
ures had been due to some unknown
cause. probably one or more of those
already mentioned. Considering the
season at which this crop is sown in
the south, and the usual climatic con-
ditions which prevail at the time of
sowing, the planter must not think it
strange if he does net obtain perfect
stand in every instance.
Sow the seed in drills 20 tc "a
inches apart. covering the seed from,
one-half to one inch deep. and firming
the sill. When the plants are we'll up.
they should be thinned cut from five
TIC ten inches apart, according to va
riety. Cultivate often enough to keep
the ground in good mellow condition
and free froni weeds. 1t cften happens
that more turnips are raised than can
oe marketed to advantage when the
crop is sold. BY storing properly, they
can be kept for considerable time