ROOT CROPS. 323 



should be decided, perhaps, with reference to the character of the 

 land. If it is either very stony or very " cloddy," or if, for any 

 reason, it is not of uniform fineness, it will be well to throw it 

 into ridges, even if the ridges be afterward raked off or flattened 

 down by rolling a barrel over them. By some means they 

 should be so depressed that there will be no danger of the ele- 

 vated bank of earth becoming too dry during the heat of summer. 



Rutabagas are grown both by planting the seed in place, and 

 by raising young plants in a seed-bed for subsequent transplanting. 

 The almost universal system is to sow the seed where the plants 

 are to grow, transplanting only as may be necessary to fill up 

 vacant spaces. All things considered, this system is probably the 

 most advisable, although an experienced farmer of my acquaintance, 

 who has experimented carefully during the past three years, asserts 

 that he finds the growth of his transplanted roots to be so much 

 greater as to amply compensate for the trouble. From my own 

 experiments in this direction, not only with this crop but with sev- 

 eral others, I am strongly inclined to believe that the labor of the 

 whole season is less under the transplanting than under the seed- 

 planting method, for the reason that with turnips and mangels 'the 

 early growth is so slow, and the small plants so delicate, that the 

 cleaning of the ground for the first and second times requires very 

 careful hand-work, which adds greatly to the cost of cultivation. 

 As the transplanting takes place much later in the season than 

 the sowing, we have ample time for at least three light cultivations 

 by horse power, which will destroy the started germs of a very 

 large portion of the weeds, that, under the planting system, would 

 have to be removed by the hoe. The manner in which trans- 

 planting should be done is referred to more at length under the 

 head of mangels. For turnips, the process requires only such 

 modification as their smaller size and greater delicacy render 

 obviously necessary. 



The ground being in thoroughly good condition, and in all 

 respects suited for the production of a large crop, the. most import- 

 ant consideration is the distance at which the rows are to be 

 placed, and the distance in the rows to which the plants are to be 



