182 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Statement of W. G. Wi/man. 



Swedish Turnips. — The eighth acre which produced my 

 ruta-bagas is a gravelly loam upon a loose subsoil. The crop 

 of 1857 was corn and turnips, with three-fourths of a cord of 

 compost ; that of 1858, corn and beans, with five-eighths of a cord 

 stable manure from my barn-cellar, and one bushel of ashes. 



Eight rods of the lot was ploughed May 2, and twelve rods 

 August 9, each once, about eight inches deep, and smoothed with 

 a hand-rake. The manure was one-third cord, spread before 

 ploughing, and one hundred pounds bone manure in the drill. 

 The first part was sowed June 7, in drills about three feet apart ; 

 the second part was transplanted from the first, August 11th 

 and 12th, after a crop of peas, in drills two feet apart. Seed, 

 Rivers' stubble Swedish turnip, raised by myself. The first 

 part was hoed twice, the second had no cultivation. 



Cost of ploughing, <fcc, 

 Manure and bone, .... 



Seed sowing and cultivation, 

 Transplanting, ..... 



Total, $5 25 



The tops paid for harvesting. 



Produce, November, 1, 250 pounds per square rod. 



The part which was not transplanted, produced 361 pounds 

 per square rod of large, well-formed roots, while that where 

 the turnips were transplanted produced only 139 pounds per 

 rod, and many of the turnips were small and imperfectly 

 formed. 



I think the fact that the weather was excessively dry when 

 turnips were transplanted, and for some time succeeding, and 

 also that the month of October, in which I usually get the best 

 growth of late roots, was very unfavorable for such growth, 

 rendered the experiment in transplanting less successful than 

 it otherwise would have been. 



Two small lots transplanted in other places, from ten to 

 twenty days earlier, produced at nearly the same rate as the 

 lot sown, from which all the plants for transplanting were 

 obtained, and the turnips were of a superior quality. 



