Cultivation of Arable Land.Turnips-~Methods of /owing of. r?&amp;gt;5 



On dry level grounds it is advifed in this view to have the drills in the dia 

 gonal direction over the field ; and where the ridges are high, directly acrofs them, 

 the plough being drawn down the furrows to difchargc the water. 



It has likewife been adduced as an additional inconvenience in the raffed drill 

 method, that where the lands are of the more wet and heavy kinds, and have but 

 little declination of furface, though larger crops of turnips may be produced, the 

 grounds are fo much injured by being pouched in conveying them off, that the 

 grain crops which follow will be diminifhed in a larger proportion than can be: 

 compenfated by the extra value of the turnips. In fuch cafes it is, therefore, re 

 commended as more advantageous to form the land into ridges, fufficiently round 

 ed to convey the water with facility into the furrows, aud of fuch breadths, as 

 about fifteen feet, that a cart can be eafily conducted along them, without prefling 

 the earth in and obftructing thefe furrows, the feed, where the land is difpofed to 

 the throwing up of annual weeds, being put in drills on their furfaces, as by that 

 means the bufinefs of hoeing may be rendered more eafy : but where this is not the 

 cafe, and where the fowing is performed at a late period, or the land is infelled 

 with the grub, the broadcaft method may be preferable, as being more certain 

 from the circumftance of the plants being left fo near to each other at the firft 

 hoeings as to admit of thinning and the removing of fuch as are weak and un 

 healthy at the fucceeding operations. Befides, they are fuppofed to have the ad 

 vantage of growing more vigoroufly from their fheltering each other more fully, 



ploughing, manuring, seed, time of sowing, &c. are equal, that where thofe in the drills with narrow in 

 tervals grow to fix inches diameter, thofe in the drills with broad intervals will grow to eight and a half 

 inches upon an average. Now, fays he, as fimilar folids are in a triplicate ratio, the weights of the 

 turnips will be as the cubes of their diameters, or as 2l6 is to 6l4 ; &y experiments in neighing will 

 prove where the turnips are fpherical, which is moftly the cafe in the beft kinds. Hence the weight of 

 the 40,200 to that of the 21,100, is as 86 to 129 nearly ; and, confequent y, when the latter are wortli 

 61. the acre, the former will only be worth 4l. 5s. As it may be objected (hat he has taken the turnips in- 

 the former mode smaller and in the latter larger than they really are, it is added, that, even fuppofing 

 the latter had been taken at confiderably lefs than eight inches diameter, the 21,100 would have out 

 weighed the 40,200 by about one-eighth part, which is, he fays, equal to fifteen /hillings the acre. 

 lie is perfectly convinced, however, that the refults of properly conducted experiments will fhew that 

 he is right in taking the proportions upon Trhich he firfl calculated. 



The ccnclufion, therefoce, is, he thinks, that, befideji the faving of expence, and the other important 

 advantages that have been mentioned, the method of cultivating turnips by the drill with wide inter 

 vals produces a weight of turnips on the acre greater by about one-third than where the narrow- 

 %aced drill plan is followed.. 



