peas tender and eatable. 
July 1, 1905 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
11 
the spring. In suitable places the yield 
of this plant is sometimes enormous. 
Broad Beans——Early plants should by 
this time be bearing pods large enough for 
use. Sow a row or two, according to re- 
quirements, at any time during the month. 
Gather the pods before the beans become 
over-large. 
Cabbage.—Plant out a small batch of 
strong seedlings, and sow a little seed in 
order to keep up a supply of young cab- 
bages. <A very little seed need be sown. 
Vast quantities of seed is wasted and seed- 
lings raised in huge numbers at a time, 
but most of them are never made use of. 
Endive.—A. useful winter substitute for 
lettuce. Sow a little seed. Plant out 
strong seedlings. 
Carrot.—Sow a little seed occasionally. 
Thin out seedlings well, and never allow 
carrots to become overcrowded or to be 
spoiled by weeds. 
Leek.—Sow a little seed in seed-bed, and 
transplant to shallow trenches when large 
enough—say, when the stems are half as 
thick as one’s little finger; or when they 
are as one’s thumb they may still be plant- 
ed. The soil should be made very rich for 
the leek, which vegetable will need a good 
deal of moisture to enable it to grow to 
perfection. When nearly full grown 
the stems may be earthed up, in order to 
make them white and tender. 
Lettuce——Transplant young seedlings 
that seem large enough to stand the moy- 
ing. Take up with a trowel after they 
have been treated to a good soaking with 
water, unless the ground may be suffi 
ciently moist already. The less the roots 
are broken the better the young lettuces 
will grow. 
Onion.—Sow a little seed occasionally, if 
a continuous supply be required. Attend 
well to seedlings which have appeared 
above ground, and keep down weeds with- 
out fail. 
Parsnip.—If a large supply of this vege- 
table be required, seed may be sown to any 
desired extent. 
Peas.—Ag this is one of the best vege- 
tables any one could grow, an endeavor to 
keep a supply going should be made. 
Plants well grown should be producing 
abundance of peas. The pods should be 
gathered whilst they are young and the 
Do not allow 
any peas to ripen, and the plants will con- 
tinue to produce much longer. Try several 
varieties. Sow as freely as you like. 
Radish.—Keep a supply going by sow- | 
ing a few seeds two or three times during 
the month. A very little seed is likely 
to suffice. Manure well with rotted dung. 
Cowdung will most likely prove to be the 
most satisfactory. Use the radishes whilst 
they are quite small and tender. 
Mustard and Cress.—Sow a little seed 
now and then during the month. These 
salad vegetables can be kept going all 
through “the year without very much 
trouble. 
Herbs.—In warm localities all sorts of 
herbs may be planted or old plants can be 
taken up divided and replanted. 
we weg 
es 
colors of the 
LUTHER BURBANK ON POTATOES. 
Luther Burbank hag again been heard 
from in, connection with astonishing expe- 
riments he is making to produce new po- 
tatoes, tubers that may eclipse any other 
yet given to man. Chief among this ex- 
perimental work is the crossing of the 
Solanum Commersoni, a wild species of the 
potato which grows on the Mercedes River, 
in South America, with the common po- 
tato. The South American tuber was dis- 
covered some ten years ago, and specimens 
were taken to Paris, and for almost a de- 
cade Dr. Heckel studied and tried to hy- 
bridise it. Finally he sent Luther Bur- 
bank a single eye, and twelve months after 
the distinguished California scientist com- 
menced his experiments he had secured 
120 hybrid seedlings from it. Also is Mr. 
Burbank experimenting with another new 
species of tuber, the Solanum Magli, which 
grows on the west coast of South America, 
in the high mountains. He also is using 
in his new tuber experimentation other 
varieties, including the hardy potatoes 
that grow in some parts of the mountains 
in Arizona, in Central America, and in the 
high mountainous country of old Mexico. 
The hardy qualities of these wild pota- 
toes, so to speak, are being combined with 
the ordinary tuber, which has, to a certain 
extent, almost run its race of service. Re- 
garding this new potato, Mr. Burbank 
said: “It will be better in quality, better 
in flavor, more productive, and of more 
even size, so as to do away with small 
potatces altogether,’. and then, reserving 
the best quality and most important, to 
the last, “it will be a potato that will resist 
the various diseases known to the tuber 
family. The resistant feature in this 
creative work is the most difficult.” Mr. 
Burbank further explained that the com- 
mon potato, the Solanum tuberosum, has 
practically lost the power to produce seed 
balls. Crossing the old varieties with the 
new ones will necessarily result in the in- 
troduction of new varieties that will have 
new qualities. 
“Albout how many varieties of potatoes 
have you on hand now, Mr. Burbank, with 
which ‘you are experimenting to produce 
the new potatoes?” he was asked. 
“Over 10,000,” was the ready response. 
Most of the 10,000 varieties are hybrid 
seedlings of Mr. Burbank’s own creation. 
These have been produced by crossing, fol- 
lowed by careful inspection, testing, and 
selection. April 27 Mr. Burbank commenc- 
ed the planting of the 10,000 varieties on 
his experimental grounds. The potatoes 
are of all kinds and shapes—some round, 
some square, some long, some short, of all 
colors of the rainbow. There are pure 
white tubers and black ones, pink, red, 
erimson, purple, yellow are among the 
potatoes that are being 
planted. When the harvest time comes 
in the Fall, possibly all but 100 varieties 
out, of the 10,000 may be rejected, and the 
following year probably this number will 
be reduced two-thirds; and so on until 
perfection is attained. “It will take twe 
or three years at least,” Mr. Burbank said, 
“to produce the new potato, as all the va- 
rieties must be put through the testing 
process.”—ALVIN. 
FXPERIMENTS ON THE MANUR- 
: ING OF TURNIPS. 
This year the experiments were carried 
out on 21 farms, and the objects of the 
work were mainly to determine the best 
method of applying nitrate of soda, and 
_the quantities of kainit and superphos- 
phate most profitably given to the turnip 
crop. These substances, together with 
sulphate of ammonia, were applied in dif- 
ferent quantities and combinations; and 
the use of barnyard manure at the rate of 
10 tons with 5 cwt. of superphosphate per 
acre, or at the rate of 20 tons applied - 
alone, was also tried. 
The results obtained indicate that where 
nitrate of sodai is the sole source of nitro- 
gen, one-half should be given in the drill 
and the rest as a top dressing after thin- 
ning. When the’ entire quantity was ap- 
plied, either in the drill or as a top-dres- 
sing, the results were much less satisfac- 
tory; but of the two methods,-application 
in the drill seemed preferable. It was 
found that sulphate of ammonia as the 
only source of nitrogen was more effective 
in some seasons than nitrate of soda. The 
most profitable returns were obtained 
where one-half the nitrogen was given in 
the drills in the form of sulphate of am- 
monia and the remainder as a top-dres- 
sing in the form of nitrate of soda. 
The omission of potash from the fer- 
tilizer application caused a great reduc- 
tion in yield. Kainit at the rate of 2 
wt. per acre in the fertilizer application 
‘was sufficient to give a large increase. 
The maximum quantity to be given profit- 
ably with other fertilizers is believed to 
be about 4 cwt. per acre. It was shown 
that 4 cwt. of superphosphate per acre 
is frequently “sufficient for turnips, and 
that more than 6 cwt. is not: hikely, by be 
profitable. 
The teste further’ demonstrated’ that 
turnips can be grown with barnyard 
manure or with commercial fertilizers, but 
that generally the use of both together is 
likely to be more satisfactory. The plot 
receiving 10 tons of manure and 5 cwt. 
of superphosphate yielded on an average 
23 tons 8 ewt. of good turnips per acre. 
Applications of commercial. fertilizers 
when not well balanced, and heavy appli- 
cations of barnyard manure alone, had a 
tendency to reduce the quality and to ren- 
der the crop more subject to disease. 
Where barnyard manure was applied with 
siperphosphate the quality was not so 
much reduced, and the yield was also 
greater. 
