CHAPTER IV. 

 SPECIAL PRODUCTS OF THE FARM 



(COMPILED BY THE EDITOR.) 



I have headed this chapter the " Special Products of the Farm" 

 to distinguish the crops enumerated and briefly described, from the 

 staple hay and grain crops of most of our farms. By-products 

 would, perhaps, have been a more suitable expression, as many of 

 the products mentioned could only be grown profitably under 

 certain conditions which do not exist in this colony at the present 

 time. There are, however, many of our farmers who have a decided 

 experimental turn, and it is always desirable to encourage experi- 

 mentation \vith new products and advocate diversified farming so 

 long as it can be conducted with profit. The ideal farm is that 

 in which the maximum variety of crops is produced and the 

 minimum purchased. The tendency in Australia is to produce one 

 staple crop and buy everything else. The farmer will, in spite of 

 all advice to the contrary, and with reason on his side, follow the 

 lines of least resistance in his practice, and when labor is dear the 

 line of least resistance often means the line of greatest profit. The 

 following notes will, I hope, be found of use to those who have a 

 desire to diversify the products of their holdings, and in doing so 

 add materially to the comfort as well as the profits of rural existence 

 and enterprise. 



TURNIPS AND SWEDES. It may be said that the turnip is cul- 

 tivated as a culinary vegetable at certain seasons of the year from 

 one end to the other in this colony, but its cultivation as a field crop 

 is very limited, being confined to a few farms in the eastern and 

 south-western districts. It is a question that only the farmer him- 

 self can decide whether it is profitable to grow these root crops, 

 and though the turnip is a staple crop in Great Britain, it is a moot 

 point whether more nutritive crops cannot be grown here serving 

 the same purpose \\ith much less labor and, consequently, more 

 profit. Turnips and swedes are cultivated only with the greatest 

 success where the rainfall is plentiful. They are valuable crops 

 for a rotation, their deep-working proclivities bringing to the sur- 

 face plant food that would otherwise be out of the reach of shallower 

 rooting crops. There are numerous varieties of field turnips and 

 swedes, chief of which are purple tops, yellow mammoth, elephant, 

 green top, white globe, and others. The soils best adapted to turnips 



