The Nevada County picayune., 1921-11-17

The old adage that The early blrd catches the worm simply means, when translated into terms of farming, that the farmer who has the earliest crop reaIrs the largest profits, not only actually. in dollars and cents from the crop he moves early, but, oppor- | tunftv is thus afforded for q succeed ing crop. which is sometimes of equal value to the one first moved. To illus trate; An early radish crop, which l is marketed. at good price during the latter days of March and the first week of April, leaves the soil in good condition and is moved ill time for I good eantaloupe or tomato crop to fol- low. But. if neither of these two last named crops are preferred, then corn, sweet potatoes or cotton can be grown on the land thus released.
 We are presuming that many of our farmers expect h continue to grow cantaIoupes and radishes, and we be- lieye we are correct in this prcsump- tion. This brings Us to the point we wish to emphasize. that of carly pro duction and marketing. We brush Iasde the=f fact that occasionally late crop brings god prices as this is al- ways uc=to some abnormal condition. The important fact remains, that on the average the early maturing crops bring far#better prices and much lafg- er profits than late crops of the same commodity.
 Ii We would produce an early crop of either =radisAes or eantaloupes We must begin preparations now. Do not put this off until next spring when tfe g1.Sh of work will make il difficult to secure such conditions for planting as we should have=The land should be deeply broken noW-thiS fall-eyen though the soil is l little dry and hard. If requires considerable time for yege- table matter. such as the remains of crops of coW-pcaS velvet beans. etc. To decay and become available as plant food. The earlier these are turned under the better. If such crops are turned in the spring, they dc not decay in time to furnish food for the crop grown on the land next spring and summer. and. as consequence, the value of these crops are very largely lost. The same principle applies to coarse stable manure and any barn yard litter This must decay and give up is plant food before any benefit can accrue to the growing crop. Con, scqnenlly. We wish to emphasize that now is the time to apply barnyard mamare fnr both radishes ald canta- loue@ in egdca te secure the largest possible gain to the growing crop next sprng. For the radish crop it is never advisable to turn the manure deeply. In fact. il k better to dis. it into the top soil after the land k broken with the turning blow. This however will require breaking the land and allowing il to settle for week or more, aS il k very difficult to haul heavy loads over freshly broken land Where this is followed it will mean that the manure k broad casted some time about the first of December on land that is broken al this date. After hroadcasting, the manure should Inc narrowed or diseed into the surface soil and allowed to lie in that condition until planting.
 When weather conditions permit, the #radish planting should start the latter part of December or carly in January. RadiShcS planted at this time should be ready for shipment by the latter part of February or the first few days of March at the latest
 unless weather conditions are quite severe Under these conditions iR is almost needless 10 say that q warm Inaured soil and protected location >hould he selected for the radish crop,