TURNIPS
Have an important place in the garden as they may be used as a catch crop almost any time during summer. Wherever vacancies occur in rows of early vegetables and it is inconvenient owing to lack of seed or other reasons to replant with the same vegetable, then one may have recourse to the ever useful turnip and fill in the hiatus with that. Turnips are at their best when young and tender, about three inches in diameter, and a constant succession can be assured by planting in this way or where the first crop of vegetables has been removed. For fall and winter use sowings may be made in July and August. Success frequently results from sowing among the sweet corn just before the last cultivation; with favorable weather a crop will mature before severe freezing weather and turnips are the better for a touch of frost.
Open a shallow drill with the hand plough or by dragging the corner of the hoe along the row and scatter the seed very thinly. If the planting is in full rows make them a foot or fifteen inches apart. As soon as the plants are large enough, thin to stand three or four inches apart; this is important as fine, smooth roots cannot be produced if crowded.
The turnip maggot is the greatest enemy the turnip has and it sometimes appears in gardens that have been entirely free from it and I think is brought in the seed. It is the same little worm that works its tortuous way through and around the radish and, although I have never grown a wormy radish, still last season an entire planting of turnips were ruined by this pest, so as I was quite sure it was not previously present in the soil I am forced to the conviction that I bought and planted it together with the seed. Moral—Buy seed of reliable dealers and examine carefully for worm holes before planting.
The Purple-top White Globe is a most popular market sort. Snowball is a white variety of fine appearance and early maturity and if used young is very tender and sweet. Early White Egg is another good early sort and for those who like a yellow turnip the Yellow Globe is a satisfactory sort. It makes a larger root than the others and is excellent both for table use and for feeding stock. It is a dependable root for feeding Belgian or other hares as it keeps well, buried in earth in a frost-proof cellar, and when gathered for winter use the tops can be piled in a cool place and fed to the bunnies. Of course this applies to all turnips which are grown for winter use.
The planting of turnips, radishes and cabbage should be watched closely for signs of the root maggot. The presence of a little, dark-colored fly about the plant is always cause for suspicion and when seen it will be well to take precautionary measures. As tobacco in any form is obnoxious to most insect life, the strewing of tobacco dust on the ground will usually drive these flies away and prevent the laying of eggs, but the trouble is that they may have already laid eggs before being discovered. Hot water poured around the plant in sufficient quantity to soak the soil an inch or so will often destroy the eggs and larvæ too. Soaking the ground with Paris green solution—a teaspoonful of the poison to a large watering pot of water is sufficient and the solution must be kept stirred to prevent its settling—will destroy the maggot, but it may also poison the turnip so is not to be recommended; also, if the worm has attacked the radish or turnip and rendered it unsightly and unfit for the table, tobacco and hot water then are the two safest and most reliable applications and the hot water over the tobacco is especially effective.
Disks made from heavy tar paper are sold for the protection of cabbage and cauliflower plants and may be cheaply made at home and though a little more trouble to apply about turnips and radishes still are practical and better than losing the crop. The disks may be either round or square and should be about three inches in diameter with a hole the size of the stem in the center and a slit extending out from the hole on one side to the edge; this allows the disk to be slipped around the stem of the plant. A leather punch which will cut a quarter of an inch hole may be used and the slit made to the center of the disk and the hole then cut. The disk lies flat on the ground and prevents the entrance of the fly to deposit the egg and the tar paper repels.
[3] Corn should not be planted in single rows for this reason:—when the corn blooms the pollen is carried from ear to ear, and from plant to plant. If a single row is planted broadside to the prevailing wind, the pollen is dissipated and the corn remains unfertilized and produces no ears. Three or more rows insures against this loss of pollenization. If only a limited number of hills are to be planted it will be better to plant them in blocks rather than in one or two long rows. Corn that matures at different seasons should not be planted in parallel single rows as the result would be the same as one single row—the corn not blooming at the same time. Again, corn of two different sorts should not be in adjoining, parallel rows, rather should each kind be planted in blocks to avoid hybridizing. Where it is necessary to give a long strip of land to the sweet corn it may be divided into blocks, especially if the strip extends from north to south, as the prevailing winds are quite uniformly from east or west and there is little trouble with cross pollenizing from south to north.