166 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



six to eight cords of good compost manure to the acre is my 

 rule for manuring land for root crops. That seems to answer 

 the purpose very well. 



As for the depth of ploughing, I usually plough seven or 

 eight inches deep, for root crops generally, with the exception 

 of onions, for which I should not 'plough so deep. 



Mr. Huntington. I would like to ask if you are ever troubled 

 with the blast on carrots ? 



Mr. Ware. Very seldom. Early sowing would be very 

 likely to affect the rows with blast ; but sowing so late as the 

 25th of May, or the 1st of June, it is very rarely that they are 

 so affected. By the way, in my opinion, October is the great 

 month for the growth of roots. I think more than one-half of 

 their growth is attained during the month of October ; and if a 

 crop, either of ruta-bagas or carrots, is sown too early in the 

 season, it becomes so mature, and begins so to ripen and harden, 

 and sometimes to send up seed stalks, that when October comes, 

 the very month in which they should make their growth, to 

 insure a rich, tender and juicy root, their game is up, they 

 have nothing more to do. The very best month of the year is 

 of no use to the early sown crop. Therefore I think the time 

 of sowing is particularly important. 



There is another thing which I omitted to mention. By sow- 

 ing late in the season, we gain just about once weeding. I 

 would have the ground ploughed once or twice, and harrowed 

 between the ploughings once or twice, so that the weeds would 

 have a chance to grow two or three crops before the crop is 

 sowed, and we thus get rid of so much weed seed ; so much has 

 germinated and is ended. If you sow early, you have got that 

 amount of weeds to contend with. This advantage is a very 

 great point. Mr. Huntington's suggestion in regard to weeding 

 was a very just one. Oftentimes, one day's work at the weeds, 

 at the right time, is worth more than a week's work afterwards, 

 and it is very important to do it just at the right time. If the 

 weeds get large, it is a very great amount of labor to clean the 

 ground. Aside from the damage that too late weeding does to 

 the crop, it saves very much labor to do it just at the right time. 

 We use, in our cultivation, what we call truckle-hoes. One 

 man can do as much or more in a day, and do it very much 



