Farmers' Items

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 126, 13 April 1893, Page 4

Farmers' Items

A writer in the Australian Agriculturist says : — Forty-two tons of potatoes to the acre is indeed a surprising yield. It is alleged that such a result has recently been obtained at Nantes, in France, by a persevering farmer, aided by the teachings of science. It is another addition to a long list of proofs that experimenting pays a farmer. The soil producing this enormous crop was of a good class, ploughed to a good depth, and thoroughly tilled, and the seed, before sowing or planting, were thus treated : soaked for 24 hours in a solution composed of 6lbsof saltpetre and sulphate of ammonia, and 25gals of water, thoroughly drained, and then allowed to stand 24 hours longer before planting. The name of the particular kind of potatoe tried is not given, but likely enough we will hear more of this notable yield later on. There are many varieties of the tuber now obtainable which, under good conditions, would give surprising results. I have tried 18 varieties this season, and found them two heavy croppers, which mature in three months, mine did in less. These are the Vanguard and a new American tuber — the Puritan. I would recommend them for & trial to the farmers having good soils, and also the varieties known as the Chancellor, Purple Kidney, and Stourbridge Glory. I have met farmers at different times who have puzzled their brains in trying to find out some plant that might be sown with wheat and would give green, feed after harvesting. The Egyptian lentil will, I think, supply this want, and will serve a double purpose as, being a leguminous plant, it will have a beneficial effect on wheat lands. Sown in May, it will ripen about the end of November or beginning of December, and shed its seeds, which will germinate again with the first showers, and give excellent pasture about the end of January. The Vicia Vellosa is another that may be used in the same way ; only, in its first stages will not grow so quickly as lentils, but which would give splendid feed about the middle of February, if the season was anything like fair.