ROOT CROPS. 337 



should be laid on the row, or, at most, each three rows 

 should be laid on the line of the middle one, the leaves being 

 deposited in the intervening spaces. They should be left in this 

 situation until they become thoroughly dry, a slight wilting being 

 beneficial. While turnips and carrots may be thrown together in 

 heaps, or even thrown into carts, mangels require to be handled 

 in the most careful and delicate way,' for a slight abrasion of 

 the skin hastens decay. They should be laid with care into 

 baskets, and emptied thence with equal care into carts, from 

 which they should be subsequently removed by hand, and not 

 dumped.* As the work of this season is generally pressing, and as 

 it is not well to put roots into warm winter quarters until the 

 weather becomes permanently colder, it is a good plan to stack 

 mangels in the field, in heaps containing from ten to twenty bush- 

 els, covering them first with leaves and then with a little earth, to 

 secure them against frost ; but before the weather becomes cold 

 enough to penetrate this thin covering they should be removed to 

 the cellar, or stowed away in pits or banks where they may 

 be safely left even until May. Mangels, as well as other roots, 

 may be stored in the field in either of two ways. One plan is, to 

 build them up compactly in heaps about five feet wide, and as long 

 as the quantity to be stored makes necessary. They should be 

 drawn together to a ridge at the top, and at intervals of about ten 

 feet along this ridge trusses of straw should be built in, projecting 

 about two feet above it. The whole heap should then be covered 

 about six inches thick with straw, (long straw running up and down 

 the sides is best,) and later, the whole should be covered a foot 

 thick with earth, leaving only the trusses sticking out, for ventila- 

 tion. The earth should be taken from a trench dug completely 

 around the heap, and a sufficient drain should lead away from this. 

 Probably it would be best to so regulate the size of the heaps, that 

 when one is opened its entire contents can be put into the root- 

 cellar at once. If this is not done, the end of the heap that is 

 left when a part of the roots are removed must be covered as 

 above directed. 



The other plan, which we think preferable to the foregoing, is 



