The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-07-22

We have more than once stated that
the fiat or English turnip could be used
to enrich the soil, but this is a favorite
time to recall it to the mind of our
readers again, says the American Gull
tivator. Let us enumerate some of the
advantages of it. 1t can be sown at
almost any season of the year and it
grows rapidly. Sown in early spring
it may be ready to pillow under in
August, or even as late as September,
il may be plowed in the late fall or left
as cover crop on the ground, which
it will prevent from washing during
the winter, yet in the spring will be
found to have frozen and decayed leaV-
ing so much vegetable matter on or
near the surface of the soil. 1t makes
nearly as good a growth upon a light,
sandy soil as upon the richest loan or
muck. and If any are to be sold or used
at the table the turnip is much better
for table use on light soil than on a
heavy soil.
The expense of seed is not heavy like
that of many of the newer crops rec
commended. Seed evenly sown broad
cast enough for an acre while ii
does not need heavy manuring. -Four
hundred pounds to the acre of a good
commercial fertilizer will grow good
crop upon an acre of old pasture land.
if the cost of this with seed and labor
is an important item, there can be
usually enough sold from it. selecting
the best. to more than repay this ex-
pense, and yet have good crop to
pillow in for green manuring.
We know that some argue that green
crops, excepting such as take nitrogen
from the air, simply return to the soil
what they have taken from 1t, and
thus do not enrich II. We are not sure
of this. or we might say that many
years of experience and more of OBJ
servation have led US to think IL is not
true. Many crops when plowed under
seem to leave the soil more fertile than
before they grew. and we will not stop
OF argue the question whether they
have taken the fertility from the at
mosphere directly through their leaves
or indirectly through the rainfall that
watered their roots. or whether they
have drawn IL up from the subsoil or
dissolved IL from particles previously
existing but dormant i'm the soil!
one might say that turnips grown in
a field and eaten by sheep confined
upon that field could not enrich the
soil because the material returned TO
from It. but when agriculture fiourished
most in England, turnips and sheep
enriched the soil and the farmers who
grew them. AS our climate does not
allow sheep 10 feed all or most OF the
winter upon fall-grown turnips which
they harvest for themselves. we have
the alternative OF putting them I'm the
cellar and feeding them to the sheep.
or letting them go 90 make the ground
they were grown upon better fitted TO
grow some other crop.
A good crop OF English turnips with
the green tops upon Il has been cal
culated 10 furnish as much nitrogen
TO the soil when plowed under and de-
cayed as q tons Of fresh barnyard ma
nure. without any admiXture Of straw.
water or muck and AS much potash as
| the same amount Of wood ashes. Who
would not think this a fairly liberal
manuring for most Of our field crops
~ regards the phosphorus acid, we
| have said that about 600 pounds per
acre of "a good commercial phosphate
h. SUFFICIENT 10 grow good crop ~
! English turnips. and chemists have
said thgt furnips have % property pc
culiaT 90 them and "a few other plants
the mors literally phosphntea Or phos-