128 rennie's agriculture. 



plentiful. The old method of pulling and topping 

 by hand, throwing the roots of four drills into one 

 row for convenience in loading into the waggon, is 

 preferable. In many cases, however, other methods 

 have been adapted in order to save hand labor. One 

 of these is to top the turnips with an ordinary hoe 

 and drag them out of the ground with the harrows 

 by harrowing across the drills, letting the harrows 

 half lap if necessary. This method answers well in 

 sandy soil, but in clay soil the turnips are consider- 

 ably injured in the process, and, as a rule, there is 

 more earth clinging to the roots than is desirable. 

 Another method is to top with the hoe and cut oiT 

 the roots with an iron plow without the mould- 

 board, and having the wing of share wide and sharp 

 to cut off the tap roots. Still another method, and 

 one generally followed in many sections of the 

 country, is to use a heavy hoe or mattock, both to 

 top and to root. Turnips should be left on the 

 ground for a day or two after being pulled, as they 

 are not so easily injured by frost as other roots. 

 Indeed, it has been found that three or four degrees 

 of frost rather improves their keeping qualities. 

 The same directions for storing mangel-wurzels, 

 both in cellar and pits, hold in the storing of turnips 

 for the winter. 



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