SOME USEFUL CATCH CROPS

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 625, 6 December 1913, Page 2

SOME USEFUL CATCH CROPS

It is generally a good plan after harvest to grow a catch crop of some kind or another in ths stubbles if these are clean. There is no use, of course, in trying to grow anything on a foul sole, but where a field is fairly clean there are :four or five crops, each one of which might be grown with success. The easiest to grow—or, at any rate the easiest in the south country-—■ is trifoliurri, as all that is necessary to be done is simply to broadcast some 201bs of seed toTths acre, byhand if there is no machine available, and harrow it in, and after a fall of rain the aeed will sprout and you will have a good crop of this particular kind of clover straight away. Another easy crop to sow is white mustard; some 141bs of seed to the acre is easily broadcasted on the surface in the same way as trifolium. It will be up and make a good crop in eight weeks, and will be ; suitable for sheep folding, but it is very oit?n sown for the purpose of ploughing in, as it makes a very goo J variety of green manure. In some districts in Scotland rape has frequently been grown, more especially after early potatoes. Sis pounds of seed broadcasted per acre after the potatoes are off will, in from [eight to ten weeks, make a very valuable addition to the crops of the farm, and is particularly suitable for sheep folding. It grows rapidly, produces a large quantity of succulent food, and when eaten on the Sand manures that same very efficiently. Soft turnips are a suitable crop, where 4lbs of seed may have been broadcasted on and hat rowed in. A thick crop of these can be pulled and sent off as greon grocery in cases when they are grown to the size of one's fist or 'larger. If wanted for food, these crops are exceedingly suitable for sheep folding also. All these crops above-mentioned are practically autumn or winter crops, which can be used entirely before Christmas ir necessary. When a spring cop is wanted as a catch there is nothing to beat rye. but for this the land must be ploughed, a process which is not always convenient in a hot dry autumn. Some two and a half to three bushels sown in August or September will produce a heavy cut of green forage by the next April. Better than this is a good crop of winter tares, say three bu;hels to the acre, with one bushel of winter oats, the oats forming a support to the tares afterwards when they grow. For this also it is necessary to plough, and for a small dressing of superphospate But in any case a large quantity of food will be produced between the other crops, as it were. The principle of catch croppingis a very .'good one, and where any of ths above, or any kind of crop h used, it will be found to give satisfaction in one way or another. A good deal of catch cropping depends upon the climate and ths district. Things can be done in the north which are quite impossible in ths south, but tar«=s, at any rate, would grow in the south, and possibly also rye, though trifolium and mustard I would harldy do so.