ON FEEDINO CATTLE WITH PARSNEPS. 09 



This crop now requires no attendance till the month of Weedinf^, , 

 May, when weeding becomes necessary. This is the most 

 expensive part of the culture. It is generally done by 

 hand, with a small weeding fork, and as the parsneps re- by hand, 

 quire to be kept very clean, the expense is proportionate to 

 the quantity of weeds. This latter summer four women 

 were employed twenty-eight days each in weeding about 

 five vergees. I tried a few perches with the hand hoe, and ^^^ hoe, 

 thinned them like turnips; they proved finer than those 

 which were hand weeded. In Guernsey they make use of or the spade, 

 the spade for this purpose. 



In the beginning of September, the beans are pulled up Digging up. 

 from among the parsneps, and about the latter end the 

 digging begins. The instrument used is the common 

 three pronged fork. This work is done gradually as the 

 cattle want them, till the ground requires to be cleared for 

 sowing wheat ; which after parsneps is generally done about Followed by 

 the middle of December. They are reckoned an excellent wheat, for 

 fallow for that kind of grain, and the finest crops are gene- ^e^an excels 

 rally those which succeed them ; as it is a tap rooted plant, ^f "' prepara- 

 it does not, like the potato, impoverish the surface, but 

 leaves it mellow, and free from weeds, to a succeeding 

 crop. 



When parsneps require to be kept for the use of cattle, Mode of keep- 

 they are brought under dry sheds, and will keep good with- *"^ ^ ^™' 

 out any care till the end of March. Should they require 

 ♦o be kept longer, they are laid in double rows over one 

 another, their heads outward, with alternate strata of earth, 

 which, when finished, have the appearance of small walls, 

 or, if made circular, of small towers. Those for seed are 

 always preserved in this manner, and sometimes carrots and 

 beets for culinary purposes, 



Parsneps are not injured by frost ; after haying been fro- Not Injured by 

 zen, they are fit for vegetation ; the onl}' sensible alteration ^^^ * 

 is their acquiring a sweeter taste, and by this perhaps be- 

 coming more nutritive. They are given raw to hogs and 

 ^ to horned cattle. Though horses are fond of these roots, injurious to 

 they are not suffered to eat them, as they make them Ian- horses, 

 guid, and are apt to injure their sight. Their leaves, 



when 



