146 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTUEE. 



wet ; having since been drained by a box-drain running through 

 it two feet below the surface, it has become fit for cultivation. 

 The soil is dark and heavy, resting upon a hard, gravelly sub- 

 soil. A compost-heap was made upon the land last fall by 

 first a layer of peat-muck, one foot deep, then sea-kelp green 

 from the beach, same depth, then a layer of muck and another 

 of kelp. In the spring, as soon as the frost would permit, 

 the whole was forked over three times at intervals of a week 

 or ten days, by which it was completely mixed and pulver- 

 ized. This, to the amount of six cords, was spread on and 

 ploughed in eight inches deep and harrowed. After a week 

 it was ploughed again the same depth, which brought the 

 manure to the surface, then the pulverizing-harrow was used 

 until the manure was very thoroughly commingled with the 

 soil, after which the surface was dragged smooth, making as 

 perfect a seed-bed as could be desired. 



On the 12th of May two pounds of seed of the Norbiton 

 variety were sown in drills two feet apart. Just before the 

 seed came up, salt was spread broadcast on two-thirds of the 

 piece, at the rate of twenty-five bushels per acre. The crop 

 was hoed and weeded three times, and at the second weeding 

 the plants were thinned as nearly as possible ten inches apart. 

 The mangolds were pulled, topped and piled up in the field 

 and covered with the tops to protect them from frost on the 

 29th of October ; after remaining ten days were stored in the 

 cellar. 



Owing to the large amount of rain this sea*)n, the crop was 

 injured on about one-half of the piece, fully thirty per cent. 

 Water stood on the surface a day or two at a time on several 

 occasions before it drained off, the drain being wholly under 

 ground. 



I observed that the efiect of salt upon the crop this year 

 was not nearly as marked as in some other instances. The 

 year before salt more than doubled the crop. That was a dry 

 season and this a wet one ; whether that was the cause of the 

 difference I am unable to tell. 



It will be noticed that, with the exception of the salt, the 

 cost of the manure applied was only the labor of carting and 

 preparing, as the muck and sea-kelp were products of the 

 farm. 



