The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1911-12-15
TRUCK GROWING.
BY r. r. De6erry, Assistant Commits.
sioner of Agriculture.


AS practically all of our lands in
West Tennessee are deficient in the
three elements mentioned, no man
who grows early vegetables can af-
ford to stint the application of fertil-
izer of either barnyard or commercial,
as these usually give greater return
upon their cost than any other one
thing that we do in connection with
the crop.
In this connection want to say, that
while lime is not strictly speaking,
fertilizer in the sense of containing
plant food, yet most truck crops re-
spond very readily to it's application.
This is brought about in two ways;
one by the beneficial effect which it
has upon the mechanical condition of
the soil, making heavy clay lands
lighter and more easily cultivated,
and the light or sandy soils more
compact an retentive of moisture, and
at the same time by some peculiar
chemical action it sets free plant food
in the soil that would otherwise re-
main so locked up that the plants
COulu uOI avail luOIuOClNOO vi IL III
sufficient amounts to be of much value.
One of the ways in which lime does
this is by correcting whatever acidity
may exist in the soil, and as not many
of the valuable plants grow freely in
an acid soil it pays to use the lime,
if it had no other effect than that of
sweetening the soil.
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of the different elements and will
proceed to the cultivation in the field.
Nitrogen, the most costly and usual
ly the most important element in
plant foods, produces the leaf growth
and gives to plants that dark green,
vigorous color which We so much like
to see in any crop. Potash produces
the woody and starchy fibre and gives
color to the fruit; while phosphoric
acid hastens the development and ma
turity of the fruit and seeds. Where
plants are small and yellowish in col
or, it indicates a lack of nitrogen, but
on the other hand where plants have
an abundance of leaf growth, and the
plants, as in the cases of wheat, are
inclined to fall over, it indicates an
excess of nitrogen or lack of potash,
and potash should be supplied to rem
edy this deficiency. Where plants
have sufficient stalk and leaf growth
but do not fruit, it indicates the need
of phosphoric acid; but the main thing
is to keep these three elements well
balanced in your soil, that is, in the
proportion in which plants demand
them. Plants, as we'll as animals,
require what we call balanced ration,
to do their best, and when one element
two, we either get vine and leaf at
is lacking or in excess of the other
the expense of fruit or we get so much
fruit that the plant is not able to
bring it to proper maturity.
Now, | am ready to take up the
cultivation of the plants in the field.
After distributing your fertilizer and
thoroughly mixing with the soil in
your burrows, stakes four feet in
length and about l IA to 1 IL inches
in diameter, made of any available
timber and slightly sharpened at one
end to make them easier to set up,
are driven up along the drill and you
are ready to put out your plants.
The plants in the bed should be
thoroughly soaked with water and
taken up with as much dirt adhering
to the roots as possible. These are
taken to the field and one plant placed
by each stake, preferably on the east
or south side of the stake, as you
want all vegetables to get the bene-
fit of every bit of the sunshine that
they can. The soil should then be
raked around the plant and firmly
pressed to the roots, as they will
recover from the effects of being NOV
ed much more quickly where this is
done than where the dirt is raked
loosely around them, and the quicker
that they recover and start into
growth the earlier and more profitable
the crop is likely to be. Plants should
be kept tied up to the stakes as fast
as their growth demands, never al
lowing them to get high enough above
the strings to fall over and break, as
they are invariably damaged when
they do so. Suckers will come out
at each leaf joint, and these should
be kept broken or cut off as fast as
they get long enough, except one
which comes out at the leaf joint just
below the first cluster of blooms, this
is called the fork, and all of our most
successful growers leave that one sc
as to have a two pronged plant ex
periments tending to show that the
two pronged plants produce the
heaviest crop, and that without appre
Gladly affecting it's earliness.
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