82 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



take it in England. Corn is a tropical plant, requiring a hot sun, 

 and will not flourish in the continual fogs of England ; but in 

 that moist climate the turnip will do better than here. It has 

 been the salvation of England. Her advancement this day rests 

 upon the turnip, and nobody can over-estimate its importance to 

 that country. But in this country it is otherwise. Corn is our 

 great crop. We are destined never to raise less than $500,000,- 

 000 worth of corn excepting in very bad years. Even in New 

 England Ave have three months of tropical weather ; and what is 

 more, we liave sixteen hours of sun then in the day, whereas they 

 have but twelve hours under the equator. Many farmers may 

 laugh at the idea that corn is a fallow crop; but we accomplish 

 precisely the same results with our corn that the Englishman 

 does with his turnips. We break up the land, manure it heavily, 

 and raise a tremendous crop of corn, and the land is then ready 

 for wheat. 



But this year we want every farmer to jDut in a crop of turnips. 

 The English thin their turnips with a machine which has revolv- 

 ing knives so placed as to cut away about nine inches in every 

 foot of the rows. But it will often happen that the cutter will 

 destroy all the turnips in one place, leaving the row untouched 

 where there are no plants. For this reason, he would not recom- 

 mend that machine. A greater weight of turnips can be raised 

 by placing the rows at least twenty inches apart, and thinning 

 the turnips to a distance of twelve inches than by having them 

 closer together. 



Dr. Waterbury said that v/hile corn was the true fallow crop of 

 this country, yet the turnip crop was the most profitable, if the 

 land is in a proper condition, and the same amount of money is 

 put upon it. An acre of land, for instance, will raise 1,000 bush- 

 els of turnips at 20 cents, or one hundred bushels of corn at fifty 

 cents. 



Mr. Adrian Bergen said that in consequence of the too early 

 planting of corn this year, it had become necessary to go over 

 the ground and take the hard crust off the top of the hill in order 

 that the corn might be able to come through. It would be better 

 to plant it the first week in June than the first week in May. One 

 difficulty in comparing the profits from corn and turnips arises 

 from the fact that another crop can be taken from the same 

 ground with turnips, but not with corn. Early potatoes may 



