Farm Gardening with Hints on Cheap Manuring Part 5

HORSERADISH.

Farmers who have soil that is both rich and deep can find profit in growing horseradish on a large scale, in connection with early peas, beans or sweet corn. The sets are planted in May, in the rows between crops, and after the crops are removed the horseradish makes its main growth. It is perfectly hardy, and comes on rapidly during the late summer and autumn months. Where the ground is not strong enough to produce large roots the first year, the business will not prove very remunerative.

=The Sets.=--Horseradish sets are made by cutting small roots (1/4 to 1/2 inch in thickness) into pieces 6 or 8 inches long. The upper end is cut square off; the lower end with a slope. This is to get them right end up at planting time. The small roots are available in quant.i.ties in the autumn, when the large roots are trimmed for market. The sets are kept in sand during the winter, or buried in the open ground, in a carefully-marked spot, where they can be easily found in the spring.

If planted 2 feet apart in rows 3 feet apart, each plant will represent 6 square feet of s.p.a.ce, and, hence, about 7,300 sets will be needed for an acre.

The method of planting is to strike out rows, and with a long dibber or crowbar make holes 8 or 10 inches deep. A set is dropped into each hole and the earth pressed about it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ideal Hollow Crown Parsnip.]

Shoots will soon appear above the surface, and when the early crop has been removed from the land, the horseradish should be well cultivated once or twice. Little further attention is needed.

The roots should be lifted the same year, in December, and stored in an earth-covered heap or pit, or else in sand in a root cellar. The small lateral roots should be saved for the next year's sets. There is a good demand for horseradish, both wholesale and retail; but prices should be ascertained before going into the business in a large way.

Good roots, after tr.i.m.m.i.n.g and washing, should weigh half a pound or more each.

PARSNIP.

The cultural requirements of the parsnip are quite similar to those of the carrot. Any soil that is deep mellow and moderately rich may be used for parsnips. Fresh manure is to be avoided, as it makes the roots rough.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mammoth Sandwich Island Salsify as Bunched for Market.]

The seed should be planted in early spring, while the ground is moist, as it germinates very slowly. It should be covered to a depth of half an inch, and the soil pressed down firmly. The plants must be thinned out to stand 3 or 4 inches apart.

The parsnip is a vegetable of a perfectly hardy character. It may remain in the ground, just where it grows, all winter. The flavor is said to be improved by hard freezing, and no amount of freezing will hurt it.

It has a high value as human food, and is demanded in large quant.i.ties in some markets. It also has a high value as a stock food, especially for cows. It should be fed after milking, in quant.i.ties not sufficient to taint the milk. The price is variable, but about the same as the carrot.

PARSNIP.--We recommend Ideal Hollow Crown. For description, see "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."

SALSIFY OR OYSTER PLANT.

Salsify, oyster plant or vegetable oyster is a root of easy culture and of high food value. In shape it resembles the carrot and parsnip, and is as perfectly hardy as the latter. The seed should be sown an inch under the surface, in spring, in rows 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 feet apart, and the plants thinned to stand 5 inches apart in the rows. The culture is the same as for parsnips. Fresh manure must be avoided, as it makes the roots ill-shaped. The roots, under good treatment, will exceed an inch in diameter, and may attain a size of 2 inches or more.

They may remain in the ground over winter, to be taken up whenever the frost permits or they may be taken up in late autumn and preserved in sand in a cellar. Good salsify is in demand where its merits are known.

THE POTATO.

The cultivation of the potato is so well understood by every American farmer and gardener that it seems unnecessary to discuss the details of cutting the tubers, planting, cultivating, harvesting, etc. The weak points of potato culture are most commonly the fertilizing and the treatment of diseases. These will be briefly discussed. As to lack of moisture, to be remedied by artificial watering, the reader is referred to our new book, ent.i.tled, "Irrigation by Cheap Modern Methods," in which a case is mentioned where water alone made a difference of 129 bushels per acre in the crop.

POTATOES.--Best for the South, Bliss Triumph, Pride of the South, Crown Jewel, Early Thoroughbred. General crop in the North--Houlton Early Rose, Table King, Late Puritan, Rural New-Yorker No. 2. For descriptions of these and other varieties, see "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."

=Fertilizing.=--A ton of potatoes (33-1/3 bushels) contains 42 pounds of nitrogen (equal to 51 pounds of ammonia), 15 pounds of phosphoric acid and 10 pounds of potash. This shows that nitrogen and potash are the elements mainly abstracted from the soil by a crop of potatoes. An a.n.a.lysis is not an infallible index of what must be applied to any soil, for that soil may be naturally rich in some one fertilizing element and deficient in the others. Only experiment will determine what is best. But a knowledge of the a.n.a.lysis of the crop is necessary to intelligent experimentation. Nitrogen and potash will evidently be demanded in most cases, yet the Ohio Station recently reports that "phosphoric acid has been the controlling factor in the increase of the potato yields" in the trials made there. This shows how greatly soils vary in their requirements.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Harvesting Seed Potatoes near Houlton, Aroostook County, Maine.]

Barnyard manure would answer all purposes and would be an ideal potato fertilizer, except for the fact that it so often carries with it the spores of such diseases as blight, scab and rot. Still, barnyard manure in a partly rotted condition is very widely used by potato growers.

Clover sod is an excellent source of nitrogen, as heretofore explained. The clover is, perhaps, the best of the leguminous crops for green manuring purposes. Many successful potato farmers depend largely upon clover, supplementing it with a small amount of high-grade complete fertilizer in the rows.

Where phosphoric acid is necessary, it can be had in the form of ground bone or acidulated rock, and potash can be had in the form of sulphate or as kainit. Where the scab is prevalent, it may prove better to use kainit, on account of the salt which it contains, as will be presently explained.

=Planting.=--It requires from seven to ten bushels of tubers to plant an acre. Some growers use as much as fifteen bushels. The date of planting, depth, distance between rows, etc., are details for individual determination. Flat culture is better than ridge culture, so far as conservation of moisture is concerned. It is important that good Northern-grown seed be planted; tubers which have not lost their strength by excessive sprouting. Storage in a cool, dark, dry place is best for potatoes. Whether planted early or late, or at successional dates, must be determined by the market requirements of the grower.

=Varieties.=--The varieties of potatoes are many, and while it is wise to experiment in a small way on new kinds, it is best to depend for business purposes on standard sorts that have been fully tested.

=Irrigation.=--After the farmer has exhausted his best efforts in the preparation and fertilization of the soil, and after good seed has been planted and the best possible culture given, there may come a season of prolonged drouth that will defeat his purpose of securing a large crop. This result is not common, but neither is it rare; and where farmers are looking toward the high culture of certain special crops, it would be well for them to consider the matter of artificially watering their potato fields.

[Ill.u.s.tration: An Average Tuber of Table King, One of the Best All Around Potatoes.]

=Diseases and Enemies.=--Not counting dry weather, which sometimes robs the farmer of two-thirds of his crop, there are four diseases which exert a disastrous influence on the potato, and which are liable to occur any season. Two of these diseases are of the leaf and stem and two of the tubers.

The two leaf troubles are respectively known as blight or downy mildew and the Macrosporium disease. The two tuber troubles are scab and rot.

=Leaf Blights.=--No attempt will be made here to separately describe the two leaf diseases. Both destroy the foliage and check the further growth of both vine and tuber. The leaves turn brown or black, and the stem quickly wilts and falls. There can be no growth of tuber without vigorous health of vine. Spraying with Bordeaux mixture, in advance of the occurrence of any disease, is recommended.

Bordeaux mixture for this purpose is made by using six pounds of copper sulphate and four pounds of quick lime, dissolved in separate wooden vessels, and the lime water poured into the dissolved blue stone. This should be diluted with water sufficient to fill a forty-five gallon barrel. Paris green to the amount of from one-quarter to three-quarters of a pound to the barrel should be added, to destroy beetles and other insects.

The vines should be sprayed five or six times, beginning when they are 6 inches high, at intervals of ten days or two weeks. During rainy weather the spraying should be more frequent than during clear weather. The object is to prolong the life and vigor of the vines. The cost of the five or six sprayings, including labor at $1.50 per day, is put at not above $6 per acre, while the crop at stake may be affected to the extent of scores of bushels.

=Scab and Rot.=--The evidence about scab and rot is still contradictory, but it is likely that these diseases will presently be under control.

At the New Jersey Station, Professor Halsted completely conquered scab with an application of 300 pounds of flowers of sulphur per acre scattered in the rows, while the same treatment at the Ohio Station was less successful. At the latter station benefit was found in the use of salt, kainit, sulphate of potash, etc.

The various experiments and observations on potato scab and rot seem to indicate that scab flourishes best on a soil inclined to be alkaline, while rot is most prevalent on a soil inclined to be acid.

The use of lime increases scab, while the use of kainit diminishes it.

The best practice, therefore, under present knowledge, would be to use clean seed on new ground, avoiding fresh stable manure. Clean seed can be had by treating tubers with corrosive sublimate. This substance is dissolved to the amount of 2-1/4 ounces, in two gallons of hot water, and (after standing a day) diluted with water so as to make fifteen gallons. In this solution the uncut seed potatoes should be soaked for an hour and a half. All unplanted seed potatoes should be destroyed, as the corrosive sublimate is highly poisonous.

The use of sulphur, as recommended by Professor Halsted, will prove entirely satisfactory in some soils. In others, the use of kainit or sulphate of potash or acid phosphate would no doubt be found preferable.

Where soil is badly affected with disease germs, it is unquestionably better to seek a new field than to attempt to disinfect the old one. A rotation of crops will probably restore diseased land to health more cheaply and more thoroughly than any other process.

=Profits.=--Of potato profits it is not necessary to speak, except to remark that it costs but little more to produce 300 bushels to the acre than 100 bushels. There can be no doubt whatever that it pays handsomely to spray potato vines with the Bordeaux mixture.

PUMPKINS AND SQUASHES.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mammoth Golden Cashaw Pumpkin, One of the Best for Market or Stock Feeding.]

There is no clear dividing line between pumpkins and squashes, as they belong to the same botanic family--the Cucurbita. Some members of the group are clearly pumpkins, and others just as clearly squashes, but when an attempt is made to draw a sharp line between them, we get into difficulty. In general terms the pumpkin has a soft rind or sh.e.l.l and the squash a hard rind. But even this thumbnail test is not infallible.

These vegetables belong on the farm, on account of the large ground s.p.a.ce occupied by the vines. Pumpkins may be economically grown in corn fields, the seeds being planted along with the corn--one pumpkin seed to every fourth hill. No special care is needed besides the cultivation given the corn.