SEEDING DOWN with TURNIPS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 272, 15 May 1875, Page 2

SEEDING DOWN with TURNIPS.

A correspondent of the New England Farmer writes :—“ I have made it a practice now for some years of sowing flat turnips with my grass seed when I seed down in the fall, and with the best results. I have now about two acres which were seeded in August, and, notwithstanding the severe dry weather, I have a good catch of grass, and the turnips are doing well. The broad leaves of the turnip protect the young grass from "the scorching rays of the sun, without whieh protection the grass before this would have been entirely dried up ; as it is, I shall save my grass and raise a few hundred bushels of turnips, and if as fortunate as I have generally been, next summer I shall cut about four tons of hay. On part of these two acres I had a crop of early potatoes, on the other a crop of oats before I seeded down. Last fall I raised about a thousand bushels of turnips in the same manner. The

turnip has a long root which penetrates the soil to a great depth, and what nutriment it obtains from the soil is obtained at a depth to the grass roots rarely penetrate, and through its broad leaves it obtains a large amount of its sustenance from the atmosphere. Hence, like clover,its tendency is to enrich rather than impoverish the soil.”