110 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



will answer. Follow ploughing with the roller and harrow. 

 Sow the seed from the seventh of June forward to the thir- 

 tieth, with seed-sower, in rows thirty inches apart. The horse 

 hoe or cultivator should be sent between the rows two or 

 more times, according to the season and the condition of the 

 soil. When the plants show two or three leaves, the rows 

 should be thinned out, leaving the plants to stand six or 

 eight inches apart in the rows. The scuffle hoe is the best for 

 first and last hoeing. The earth must not be heaped about 

 either of the roots spoken of in this report. The product 

 under good management, and with a favorable season, is 

 seldom less than six hundred bushels per acre. The tops from 

 an acre are worth more for feeding than their weight in good 

 grass. The ruta-baga is a slow grower. It does not produce 

 so much weight per acre as the common turnip — is less laxa- 

 tive ; and it is generally acknowledged that twenty tons of 

 ruta-bagas are worth, for feeding, thirty tons of the common 

 turnip. The ruta-baga is more fattening than milk producing. 

 Corn will not thrive when following the ruta-baga. It is 

 said that wheat will follow it, producing a better yield than 

 when planted after white turnips. Carrots may follow turnips. 

 The land is cleaner than after a corn crop. 



Manures. — If green manure is used in preparing the land for 

 root crops, the labor in cultivation will be fourfold. If, witli 

 the manure, the seeds of weeds be deposited in the soil, they 

 will outgrow the seeds of all hybridized plants. Whether it is 

 expedient for farmers to wait for the manure of their barn- 

 yards to become thoroughly rotted before they begin to grow 

 root crops, or expedient for them to purchase in the interim 

 guano, &c, tfcc, to manure their lands, thus avoiding the 

 danger of sowing weed seeds, — they can best decide. Guano 

 (and all manures which contain' phosphates) is a profitable 

 addition to the soil devoted to the root crop. The best extra 

 applications are, dissolved bones, " bone dust," " bone powder," 

 or guano, which contains a large per cent, of phosphates. 

 Phosphates are indispensable to the growth of roots. 



Experiments in Feeding. — Mr. ITowdoin, of Scotland, in 1832, 

 made the following experiment in feeding with mangold wurzel, 



