Disease in Turnips.

King Country Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 86, 12 June 1908, Page 3

Disease in Turnips.

One of the diseases which the British farmer has to contend against is the " finger and toe " in swede turnips. This causes a serious loss in many districts. Here it is almost unknown, though some of the swedes at Momohaki had a suspicion of it. At Cockle Bank, Professor Gilchrist carried out some valuable experiments which proved that the application of lime was a deterrent, if not a cure of the disease. With 2 I A tons of lime,costing 3ls3d, the yield increased considerably, and in 20,000 roots there were 10 per cent, sound, /2 per cent, slightly diseased, and 18 per cent, badly diseased. In the same number of roots after a dressing of 5 tons per acre, costing 62s 6d, there was a higher yield, and 7 per cent, were sound, 89 slightly and 4 badly diseased. With an application of 10 tons costing 125s the sound turnips were the same, 7 per cent., slightly 90, and badly diseased 3, showing that the higher the application of lime the greater immunity from disease.

An American experimental station bulletin re the means to avoid waste in farm-yard manure, recommends that the manure should be spread on the land, and not made into heaps where a chemical process of decay goes on, and the main ingredients are dissipated into the air, and valuable gases are set free. The rain falling on a heap of manure also washes much of its manurial constituents out, and this is generally lost if a proper receptacle is not made for the manure.

There are two, and only two, ways in which manure loses its value. These arc leaching by rain, and the heating which accompanies chemical action. When the manure is heaped in the field or elsewhere in the open both these agencies begin their action. The rain falls upon the heap, and washes its more soluble, and, therefore, more valuable, constituents into ground immediately under and around the heap, and chemical, or more properly bacterial, action begins in the heap, liberating its nitrogen, and converting its phosphorus and potassium into more soluble forms, to be washed down by the next shower. The spreading of the manure green on to the soil avoids all this ; and the rain falling on it washes the plant food into the soil, which, being a perfect absorbent, retains it until the next crop requires it. If you want to topdress your paddocks, then, with stable manure, cart it out green, and spread it as soon as you can.