Part 5 (1/2)

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 was.h.i.+ng, 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.