FOLDING OK TUBNIPS. 25 



pounded with 100 pounds of the Stono Phosphate ; let it stand six 

 weeks, then applied as above stated. Cultivated with a cultivator 

 by horse power no hoeing ; left about six plants to the yard ; 

 had only one rain on them after plowing, and that a light shower. 

 Sowed two pounds of seed to the acre ; planted by hand through 

 a guano bugle, and then rolled.' 



"What does it cost to raise a' bushel of turnips? If we make 

 500 bushels to the acre, the cost will be about four cents per 

 bushel ; if 1,000, the cost will be about two cents per bushel. This 

 does not include gathering, storing, and marketing, because the 

 use that it is proposed to make of the turnips involves none of these 

 expenses. 



" What use, then, is to be made of the crop ? Feed them off on 

 the land with sheep, the process ordinarily known as folding. 

 For this purpose a portable fence is necessary. (These are de- 

 scribed hereafter). 



" The fold should not include more turnips than the sheep will 

 eat off clean in twenty-four, or, at the utmost, forty-eight hours. 

 If it be larger, the turnips will be wasted. Sheep not accustomed 

 to turnips, may at first refuse to eat them. But let them get quite 

 hungry, and then sprinkle some salt upon the turnips. After they 

 once get a taste of them the only difficulty will be to get enough 

 of them. One thousand sheep will consume an acre of' turnips in 

 twenty-four hours ; one hundred in ten days and nights. With 

 these data, the size of the pen can be graduated. One-tenth of an 

 acre should be the size of the fold or pen per one hundred sheep. 

 One acre of turnips will support one hundred sheep for ten days, 

 three acres one month, nine acres three months. This is not the- 

 ory, but the result of actual experiment. The enemy of the turnip 

 is the fly. There are two means of preventing the ravages of this 

 troublesome insect. One is very thick seeding, the other is dust- 

 ing the young plants as soon as they are above ground, with un- 

 leached ashes, or air-slacked lime. After they reach the rough 

 leaf there is no further danger from this source. The thinning 

 should take place as soon as the rough leaf is formed. If this 

 thinning is delayed, the crop will be seriously injured." 



For the northern states the culture of the turnip, ruta-baga, su- 

 gar beet, mangel, and cabbage, is as follows: the preparation of the 

 ground being alike for all, the time of sowing alone being differ- 

 ent. Sugar beets and mangels are sown from April to June, 

 the early sown crop being invariably the heaviest. Ruta-bagas are 

 sown June 15th to July 1st. Cabbage for late crop is sown in 

 seed beds in June to be transplanted in July. Yellow Aberdeen 

 2 



