Science and Practice in Farm Cultivation — John Shaqi
Science and Practice in Farm CultivationBuckman, James
Science
Science and Practice in Farm Cultivation
Buckman, James
Agriculture
2nd. Some of the forms of roots, and more especially those belonging to
the _Brassicaceæ_, such as turnips and swedes, seem to have a wonderful
facility for hybridizing; and this not only to the extent of one sort of
turnip with another, but sports may be caused by the fertilization of
the turnip with rape and its congeners. Indeed, the hybrid with turnip
and rape is doubtless the origin of the Swedish turnip; but there is
reason to believe that mixtures may accidentally be made with such wild
plants as charlocks and mustards, the growth of which in the vicinity of
a seeding crop tends to the production of degeneracy. Seeding-patches,
then, and the ground about them, cannot be kept too clean.
Again, if trueness be aimed at, there should be no mixture of sorts in
seeding examples; all of the same kind should be selected for
seeding-plots, as even one or two of a wrong sort may result in a very
mixed sample, as it would seem that sometimes strange plants exert more
than ordinary influence.
Of course, the putting seeding-patches of different sorts side by side
is to be reprehended. If more than one sort be seeded in a season, it is
advisable to place the patches as remote from each other as possible.
And we would here remark, that, for seeding, the roots should, as a
rule, be farther apart than when grown for bulbs, both in rows and in
sets; as, if too close, the stems grow up thin instead of robust, and a
smaller seed, with a tendency to the growth of smaller roots, will be
the result.
3rd. Mixtures of seeds should be avoided for the reason assigned, that
“sorts” do not usually grow evenly; and when one sees (as is by no means
infrequent) a patch of swedes overshadowed by a mixture of some large
early turnip,—the Tankard, for example, our crop of swedes will
certainly suffer for it, even supposing the turnip to be as useful as
the swede, which is seldom the case.
Mixtures, again, do not come up at the same time; sorts may differ in
this respect, but especially do old and new seeds vary as to their
germinating powers: two-year-old seeds taking four or five days more to
come up than a new sample; thus giving a greater chance for the ravages
of the flea-beetle than where the seed all comes up quickly.
Now, as a practical application of these remarks, we here quote from an
article in the _Agricultural Gazette_ of May 24th, 1862.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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