CULTIVATION OF PARSNIP* 411 



Insure its regular spreading over the surface. 

 The seed is then covered by the harrow. The 

 quantity sown is from half a denerd* to one 

 denerd per vergce. The half denerd is judged 

 sufficient, but many farmers sow the whole, to 

 enable them to harrow the land before the first 

 weeding, by which means, they destroy so many 

 weeds as to save much of the after hand-weed* 

 ing. As soon as the plants are sufficiently strong, 

 they are hand-weeded and thinned ; and this 

 operation must be repeated at least three times 

 during the summer. The distance between the 

 plants is ultimately about nine inches ^ and,"ta 

 save a portion of the labour, a harrowing is some- 

 times given between the first and second weed- 

 ings. The ex pence of weeding a v&rgee three 

 times, is 30s. I believe that the practice of dril- 

 Ing and horse-hoeing, by which much labour 

 might probably be saved, has never been at- 

 tempted in Guernsey, where agriculture has not 

 arrived at that perfection which it has attained 

 in this country, and where, from the infinitely 

 small division of property, and consequent size 

 of the farms, with the almost unavoidable at- 

 tachment to antient practices which accompanies 



* The denerel is four quarts; the vergee 17,640 square 

 feet; 2.46 vergees are equal to an English acre, which conse- 

 quently gives about ten quarts to the acre. The price o 

 parsnip seed while I write, is 2s. 6d. the denerd, maldag the 

 expem-e per acre nearly 7s. &1. 



