148 MARKET GARDEi?i:N'G. 



process corresponds with that of some of our prairie 

 farmers, who turn their beef cattle into the standino- 

 corn (a bad practice on the Atlantic coast), and follow 

 by hogs, which find every half digested grain passed 

 through the cattle, and fatten sooner than on dry corn. 

 In America, wdiere a five-acre patch of ruta bagas 

 cannot be found within some of the counties, to say 

 nothing of States, the statement may excite surprise that 

 a hundred acres in that root on the lands of a single far- 

 mer of Great Britain is by no means unusual ; and 

 recently the writer entertained an English farmer and 

 stock-breeder, making a tour in this country, who, him- 

 self, cultivated two hundred and fifty acres in roots 

 annually. 



HaRVESTIN^G TURI^IPS. 



Of course, such large breadths demand every me- 

 chanical device and appliance for saving the crop, and 

 instead of, as with ns, each root destined to be stored 

 beinf pulled up singly by the hand and cast into a heap, 

 then ao*ain taken in hand and topped, again cast into a 

 heap preparatory to being hauled awa}', they, on the 

 contrary, top with a hoe. A light, sharp steel hoe is 

 held perpendicularly in hand, and, with a quick action, 

 drawn horizontally, thus decapitating each root in suc- 

 cession as it stands in the ground. This done, they are 

 drawn out and into windrows by a chain-harrow. It 

 can be readily seen with what celerity this labor may be 

 performed, and the great saving in cost. AYith our 

 small patches we can get along, hoAvever, by the old 

 time-honored practice ; with increasing breadths of land 

 in roots will come improved methods. Some growers 

 have already adopted new systems ; instead of topping 

 all the roots of tlie crop, they haul a portion, just as 

 pulled up, top and root, to a convenient position near 

 the stables, j)lace them in a narrow, ridge-like form, and 



