VEGETABLE CROPS FROM SANDY SOIL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3915, 7 March 1929, Page 2

VEGETABLE CROPS FROM SANDY SOIL.

GOOD RESULTS AT MOTUITI. It is little short of marvellous what the sandy soil around Eoxton will produce. In Mr. Val Croon’s garden, at Motuiti, there is to be found almost every kind of household vegetable. The soil, which is particularly sandy, has not been specially treated but has been subjected to a little top dressing. Tomatoes are growing in profusion while Mr. ,Croon has an excellent crop of mangolds up. Potatoes, pumpkins and the usual vegetables associated with a cottage garden are growing in abundance, while his rhubarb would have been hard to beat this season. Mr. Croon is a great believer in the possibilities of the sandy country aud he can certainly back his arguments up by results. The most suitable manure for this class of country, in his opinion, is phosphate. During the ,course of an inspection of the Motuiti Flax Co’s, property this week our representative was shown, a crop of turnips which were looking particularly well but the surprising part about the crop was that it was the second this season. The (first crop was put in in October of last year and by January a very heavy crop had been taken, elf the paddock and the second crop, which is showing good growth hut which will possibly not be quite as heavy as the previous one, was sown. The section received a top dressing of a hundred weight and a half of manure prior to the seed being sown. “Bandy soil must always be assisted,” said Mi*. Croon, “but the farmer will always get back more than he puts into it. The farmer who says he can’t afford to top dress is no farmer at all.”