318 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



such a field it is hardly possible that the proper amount of labor, 

 judiciously directed, should fail to produce most profitable results. 

 But if the land is only half-rich ;_ if, in wet weather, it is too moist, 

 and in dry weather too hard-baked ; if it is filled with the seeds of 

 troublesome weeds, or with the roots of quack-grass, or if its ex- 

 posure is a cold and unfavorable one, it may be fairly assumed that 

 the labor and manure expended in an effort to raise root crops will 

 bring but a meager and unsatisfactory return. While the cultiva- 

 tion of roots is a necessary accompaniment of high farming, — 

 with poor farming, at least so far as the root land is concerned, 

 they can hardly fail to produce a large crop of disappointment to 

 the grower. It is possible to produce on an acre of land two 

 thousand bushels of mangels, or fifteen hundred bushels of tur- 

 nips. It is hardly possible to produce such a crop as this without 

 deriving a large amount of profit from the operation ; for it can 

 onlv be done under such circumstances as will give the greatest 

 possible effect to the amount of manure used for the crop, and to 

 the labor that its care involves. It is easy on ordinary soils, ordi- 

 narily manured and not very carefully attended, to raise three 

 hundred bushels of beets and from one hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred bushels of turnips. Probably under no circumstances 

 would there be a profit attending the growth of such a crop. It 

 will be readily seen, then, that the adoption of root culture on a 

 large scale implies a willingness to resort to such careful modes 

 of cultivation, and such effective means of fertilizing, as will 

 suffice for very much larger crops than are now common on 

 American farms. In favorable seasons, and under the most favor- 

 able circumstances, mangels should yield a thousand bushels to 

 the acre, and rutabaga turnips not less than from six to eight 

 hundred, and such crops should pay very well. 



It is frequently the case, — indeed, it is very common through 

 the sea-board regions of New England and New Jersey, that the 

 demand for roots for the general market is so active and reliable, 

 that it will pay to go to greater expense, and submit to greater 

 inconvenience, for the sake of growing root crops, than would be 

 possible, or at least profitable, in a purely agricultural region. 



