CULTIVATION OF VEGETABLES. 145 



is worse than if they did not grow at all, for then you would 

 try some other crop. Take turnip-beet seed, to illustrate. 

 Suppose a farmer sows an acre of turnip-beets, the product of 

 that acre should be six hundred bushels, to say the least. That 

 would not be a large crop. Now, if he raises a good article, 

 take one year with another, they will bring nearly $1 a bushel 

 in Boston market ; but if they are a coarse article, that market 

 has become so particular, that the dealers will not take a coarse 

 article, and it is no use to send it there. If it is a coarse arti- 

 cle, it is worth what ? Anywhere from fifteen to twenty cents 

 a bushel, as food for cattle. There is the difference between 

 good seed and poor. You can all see it at once. 



After the seed is sown — and, by the way, what Dr. Nichols 

 said to-day is true, a large portion of the seed is planted too 

 deep — the market gardeners use a small hand- roller a great 

 deal in their business, because you can sow your seed at a less 

 depth, and it is more sure to germinate if the soil is compacted 

 by running a hand-roller over it after sowing, and it will come 

 up much better. In sowing their seed, market gardeners are 

 very careful — and the same would apply to a great many farm 

 products — to have their rows perfectly straight and of uniform 

 width. I contend that it is no more work to raise beans or 

 anything else in straight rows than to have them crooked, and 

 you do not annoy anybody, or make anybody twist his head off 

 in looking across your field. Why is it better to have the 

 rows straight ? For the reason that you can run your horse- 

 cultivator and your wheel-hoes much nearer to the row when 

 it is straight than when it is crooked ; therefore, you save in 

 your cultivation. Then, if you wish to cultivate in the best 

 way, you will cultivate early and often ; the old democratic 

 way of voting, when I was a boy. Keep all the weeds down ; 

 don't allow them to get a start. The old idea of letting the 

 weeds get up and then killing them is exploded ; market gar- 

 deners don't believe in it. We don't propose to have them get 

 up at all. Thorough cultivation improves the crop, makes it 

 larger, makes it less costly, not only because it is larger, but 

 because it is less work. Therefore, clean and thorough culti- 

 vation is one of the most important things in raising garden 

 vegetables ; but no more important there than it is in growing 

 crops upon the farm. No farmer can afford to raise a crop of 

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