Please wait. Contacting image service... loading

Article text

¡ OMOXS.
' To the Agricultura] Editor.
Sir,-He onions, kisdly -Jet me kaow the
following, vis. :-(1) Hew Jons' they take to
maííire (from time cf towing to har vetting?)
<2) I intend io top-úrt-se willi a mir-tare of
blood manure, boncduvi, pot&eh, «rad super,
at what, stage of their growth, would it be
be¿t to apply? <K*d- pat ia ead of May and
«aily June.) (3) I cultivóte with j'iaaet
Junior, and go wittiiii ou© inch cither sida
ol pla ats, is it necessary to work thc cou
in the row« betweca the plants? {they ar«)
all {ree from weed«).-And oblige
! - ? "COCKT."
; York, August G.
1. How long does it take for a baby
to learn to walk ? (from time of birth to
time when he starts to chase
tho fowls). The one question
is as capable of an accurate
reply as the other. I am not
making fhn of the question which ie a
good and natural one; but making ex-
cuse for not answering it directly. The
fact is the time of maturity of any crop 1
depends on various circumstances,
among which are the variety, the wea*
tiler, the soil, the situation, thc season
of the year. Tims in the same garden
and in the same year I have picked
French beans in less than seven weeks
from sowing the seed and had to wait
fourteen weeks. You may get a potato
crop in thirteen weeks or your may
have them in the ground six months.
In no garden crop will the time from
sowing the seed to gathering a maturo
crop vary more than with the onion,
Ï do not think you could get a crop in
less than five months, and you might'
take eight. There are two chief mer
thods in growing onions. The one is.
to sow in spring where the plants ara
intended to mature. The other is to
sow the seed in special beds and plant
out the onions in the permanent beds.
In early districts seed is often sown in
January and February and the planta
set out after the first good rains. Thia
will give mature onions in the early
summer. Yours should be ready hy th«
end of December. Seed sown this month
should give the mature crop later on«
That is as near as I can get to a defin-
ite answer.
2. I do not quite understand your
! ideas with regard to top-dressing,
! Bonednst is not suitable for top-dvess
i ing, and the potash should have been put
in the ground before the crop-at least
that is the recognised practice. For
top-dressing to be effective you need a
quickly acting soluble fertiliser. Bone
j dust is one of the slowest acting man?
I ures. Blood manure is all right it
I good ; but be sure you get an analysis
I and take the name of the brand ; an)
awful lot of useless rubbish has beeii
. palmed-off on to farmers and gardeners
j as blood manure. The actual supplier;
I is usually as innocent as tho buyer, and
j both are in the hands of a nianure-maki*
er who knows as little as either about'
the principles governing the business,
j but defrauds the public and renders it
protect both tho honest manufacturers,
and their agents to do business. Tho
Fertiliser Act will check this, and will
protect both the honest manufactures.
I of whom there are plenty, and the pro***
j ducers. It is now the time for buyers
to do their part by asking to know
the name of the registered brand and
to insist on being supplied with an in-
voice giving the analysis. On no ac
I count should anyone buy without this,
j and if tho seller tries to evade giving
j it, it is at least a suspicious thing.
1 To return to top-dressing. If your
I land is in good heart and the potash
j and phosphoric acid have been applied
I before planting, the best top-dressing is
j either nitrato of soda or sulphate of
i ammonia audtwo or three small dress-
ings of 201b. to the acre, are much pre«
fcrable .to one heavy one. Superphos-
phate is a soluble manure, and may bri
applied as a top-dressing with sulphate
or ammonia. For this purpose thé
double or concentrated super is the bet*
ter. It is 2i times as' rich in phos-
phoric acid, but is not so costly in pro-^V
portion, and is therefor© cheaper. The
price per cwt. is, of course, more than
twice as high. I think the price at
Fremantle is about two and a quarter
times as high, and that means that tho
cost per pound of phosphoric acid ia
loss. You might1 well give a top-dress-
ing now, another in September, and an-
other in October. ' ' ,
3. I think that- it is not nooossary
to hand work between the plant« : but
such working would be preferable if
practicable. At any rate, trv a patch
and note the results. If you -find that
patch getting ahead of the otter parts
of the plot, you know what toldo.
$