GROWING SWEDES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 303, 17 August 1932, Page 2

GROWING SWEDES

RESULTS WHICH MAY COME FROM CORRECT MANURIAL TREATMENT. BENEFIT OF NITROGEN. Commenting on the swede crops shown iri the recent fields competition in the Putaruru district, Messrs. G. Dalgleish and H. Woodyear-Smith, the officers of .the Agricultural Department responsible for the judging, pointed out in the course of a bridf report that swedes showing two or three or more tops were common and from information gathered from farhi: ers this appears to he an abnormal , featufe of the swede crop'S this season. This is generally considered to be a weakness of seed. Dark centres or mottled heart was very much in evidence. Very little dry rot in swedes was noticeable. Although it is most desirable tat swedes be grown free of mottled heart, there is really no great amount of loss due to this trouble. Experiments have previously proved that in sorne districts this condition can be overeome by manurial treatment, but the treatment advocated is not applicable to ordinary farming practice, except in odd instances. In the Rotorua district in fields in which mottled heart has beeri prevalent, sound swedes could always be found where a liberal application of farmyard manure had been applied, or on areas where there had heen a hay stack built at one time or another. Variation in Quality. A perusal of notes on quality shows that where nitrogen has heen used in conjunction with super, the quality is better. In Mr. Baldwin's swede crop, Putaruru district, the improvement in quality was very noticeable as against crops previously judged. The manure used on this crop was super 2cwt, bones lcwt, lime lcwt, sulphate of potash 201b. Hurst's Superlative swede was grown on this area, whereas in most cases Garton's Superlative was grown. This may or it may not be a contributing factor toward the quality being better. There is no doubt that the variety of swede sown plays a part in the difference of quality. A striking instance of this was brought under our notice whilst judging the swede crops in the Rotorua district. On Mr. H. M. Martin's property at Mamaku, in a field where five varieties of swedes were growff under the same manurial treatment, the variety Grand Master was by far the best quality. In the Tokoroa district the winning crop (Dewis) and Mr. Baker's crop in Lichfield, a manurial mixture of super and blood and bone was used, with swedes of very fair quality. On Mr. E. R. Leslie's, Chambers Bros.' and F. M. Dodd's cron?, a mixture of super, lime, Seychelles guano, bonedust and potash was used, resulting in very faii8 quality, mottled heart only showing to a slight extent.