GROWERS CAN SAVE LABOR BY TIMELY CULTIVATION 
By H. S. Thompson in Farm Bureau News 
Growers can save labor by timely cultivation. By timely cultivation I mean culti¬ 
vation that is given when there is need for it, and when the crop will be benefited by it. 
Cultivation given when there is no need for it is not timely and is likely to do more 
harm than good. The most timely cultivation is that given when weeds are just breaking 
through the soil. For at this time they can be killed by shallow cultivation which merely 
breaks the crust and stirs the surface. By the time weeds have become well established, 
they have already done considerable damage to the crop, and to eradicate them requires 
relatively deep cultivation. Deep cultivation destroys many of the roots of the crop plants 
and this may result in a serious check in growth. 
NOTE: —It has been proven by experimental results at Ithaca and on Long Island, 
that very deep cultivation is harmful to many kinds of plant roots; a more shallow culti¬ 
vation is best. Also it has been proven that where you have recently cultivated, extra 
cultivations will be of no benefit. To quote Thompson, “A light rain wets only the 
surface two or three inches, so that cultivating to this depth results in loss of a large part 
of the water that reached the soil in such light rains”. Late cultivations were not of much 
value. 
In the experiments, cultivating beets 7 times was equal to cultivating them 10.6 times; 
and 7 cultivations of carrots were as good as 11.4 cultivations; cultivating onions 8 times 
was as good as cultivating them 13 times. 
Do Glads Change Color? 
Practically all growers hear this question very often, and all of them give an answer 
depending on their experience. I think in most cases, people who ask this question started 
with a mixture. As some varieties will increase ten to twenty times faster than other 
very slow propagators, it is reasonable to suppose that in a very few years a mixture will 
have dwindled to a very few colors. This is true in particular where no bulblets are 
saved, and only bulbs are planted over and over each year. It is a well known fact that 
with some varieties the same original bulb reproduces itself each year for many years 
(sometimes ten or more years) while many of the varieties (where no new bulbs are 
propagated from bulblets) will only last a few years and then die out. This will leave 
only the very strong (The survival of the fittest) and the long lived varieties. So you may 
start with a mixture of fifty or more, and in a few years have only a few varieties left. 
Of course you may have nearly as many bulbs as when you started, as many also increase 
by division, and where you plant one bulb you may dig three or more. This is one good 
reason why you should plant named varieties in place of mixtures. You can keep a better 
check on their performance, and you are more sure just what to expect. 
If you want a mixture, where all the varieties have been selected, because they are 
ALL STRONG GROWERS; and all will increase fast, and do well under all kinds of 
weather and soil conditions, ask for COMMERCIAL CHAMPIONS MIXTURE listed 
with Special Collections. 
But aside from the foregoing, fertilizing elements and chemicals sometimes make 
radical changes in the color; at least for the one season that they make contact with such 
fertilizers. I remember many years ago when I was still growing a well known yellow 
variety, Golden King, introduced by Black in 1914. Although I knew this variety very 
well and had grown it for years, I did not know it when I found it growing in another 
growers fields; and the reason for the radical change of color was nothing more than an 
excessive use of hen manure. Sometimes extremes of temperature and weather cause 
slight changes in coloring; often a “streaking”, “mottling” or “splashing” of deeper color, 
but outside of the foregoing there are no color changes except by “SPORTS” or mutations, 
and I have given very careful study to this subject for many years. You will find this 
article continued under the head of SPORTS. Of course it is true that a variety grown 
in a much different climate will have some slight change in color, as it will when forced 
under glass, but you will know the variety when you see it. 
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