ROOT CROPS. 71 



milk from fifteen to twenty per cent." Says another, " My 

 experience is that cabbage produces flesh, as well as milk," 

 which facts go to show that we can at any time find ready sale 

 for the crop. 



Carrots. — " All vegetation, in various stages of growth, 

 requires warmth, air and moisture to support life and health. 

 Below the surface of the ground there is a body of stagnant 

 water, sometimes to great depth, but in retentive soils usually 

 within a foot or two of the surface. This stagnant water not 

 only excludes the air, but renders the soil much colder, and 

 being in itself of no value, its removal to a greater depth is very 

 desirable." And to accomplish the object, under-draining must 

 be resorted to. 



Evidently some soils require more expense than others ; a 

 clayey subsoil requires much deeper, and a greater number of 

 drains than in fields where the soil is of a more loamy char- 

 acter ; again, we must be governed by the surrounding lands ; 

 if the field has the wash of adjacent fields, it is plain that a drain 

 should be constructed to receive the water that flows from the 

 lands above, and cross-drains from the same. The cost of 

 making drains in this neighborhood, from two and one-half to 

 three feet deep, and stoned with common field stone, is about 

 one dollar a rod where the work is done by hand labor alone ; 

 but the same amount may be done at much less expense by 

 using oxen and ploughs ; three furrows are first cut about six 

 inches deep, and the sod removed ; two ploughings more may 

 be made with the same plough, and the earth removed at each 

 ploughing, thus making the excavation about fifteen inches 

 deep ; after which the subsoil plough may be used by having a 

 yoke of sufficient length that the team may walk on both sides 

 the drain, and two ploughings more can be made in most of our 

 soils ; by this means a great amount of labor is saved in the 

 excavation — at least one-half. 



The work of under-draining and the use of the subsoil plough 

 are as yet but little known. Properly draining and removing the 

 stagnant water, renders the soil drier, warmer, and more friable ; 

 it leaves the pores and fissures open, thus affording a free circu- 

 lation of air ; and the rains that fall carry the fertilizing- 

 substances to the roots of the plants, thus causing a vigorous 

 growth. 



