SECRETAKY'S REPORT. Q9 



Sifting and applying guano, 



Covering drills, .... 



Leveling down drills and sowing seed, 



Tliinning and -weeding, 



Cultivator and hoe, 



Pullino; and trimmincr, 



Di'Mwing home and housing, 



Seed, ..... 



Total, . . . . . 



We grow our rutabagas on land which was in oats the previous 

 year, plowing in tlie stubble in the fall, and harrow, drill and sow 

 about 15th to 20th June, and usually obtain from six to ten hund- 

 red bushels. Eiglit hundred bushels may be considered an average 

 crop. We have no experience in roots, as a Jield crop, except the 

 rutabaga and potato. Have tried various other kinds of turnips from, 

 imported seeds distributed by the Patent Office, and have proriounced 

 them all worthless, as compared with the rutabaga, either for cattle 

 or the table. Our method of culture of this I'oot. ado[ited from many 

 years experience, and successfully practiced for the last eight years, 

 is as set forth above ; or to repeat; : 



1. Plow deep in the fill, (our land is clay loam.) 2. In June, 

 harrow. 3. Open the drills two and a half leet apart, twelve inches 

 deep — we use the common two-horse plow, going twice in each drill, 

 turning a furrow out upon each side ; to do this with ease and reg- 

 ularity, have your double tree five leet long. 4. Strew guano, 

 (previously pounded and sifted,) in these furrows, at the rate of 

 half a pint to a rod in length of row. 5. Cover, by turning back 

 the two furrows thrown out, letting the plow run as deep as the 

 bottom of the drills. 6. Level down the drills thus made, and make 

 the surface fine, by a fine garden rake or drag hoe. 7. Sow the 

 seed imnicdiatvlij^ while the turned up earth is fresh and moist. 8. 

 Tiiin to ten inches apart as soon as tlie second or rough leaves are 

 well grown, say an inch long. 9. Stir the ground between the rows 

 and about the plants with cultivator and hoe, as often as weeds show 

 themselves or the soil gets hard ; hoe no .earth to the plants, but 

 keep it light about them. 10. Seize the plant by the top with the 

 left hand, pull it up, and with one light blow of a knife made of a 

 piece of old scythe, strike off the tap root and dirt adhering ; another 

 blow strikes off the turnip from tlie top; drop two rows of turnips 

 together an<l throw the tops into piles ; in .this way where the crop 

 is good, a smart man will pull and trim one hundred and fifty bushels 

 a day. I have been thus particular in detail, because so simple a 

 thing as raising turnips is considered a great mystery by many. 

 Every thing depends upon rapid growth at first start, and seasonable 

 thinning and weeding. 



Carrots we have grown only to the extent of quarter of an acre- 



