74 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



bushels of refuse salt. The seed should be soaked thirty-sis 

 hours before planting, the water being hot when poured upon it ; 

 and it should be dropped by hand and covered with the hoe. It 

 is very seldom that a machine will drop and cover mangel 

 seed in such a way as to secure an even crop. A strip of plank 

 four inches wide and three feet long, from the lower side of 

 which one and one-fourth inch pins project two inches, with 

 spaces of seven inches, applied lengthwise on the top of the 

 drill by means of a light frame handle, is a convenient imple- 

 ment for making the holes into which the seed is to be dropped. 

 This avoids the labor of thinning the plants, and enables the 

 cultivator to cover the seeds at a uniform depth. Mangel 

 wurzel are raised almost exclusively for my milch cows — a few 

 being fed to store hogs. They should be sowed by tb.e 20th of 

 May. 



Carrots are raised on rather warmer, lighter land, enriched 

 with rotted barnyard manure, ten cords to the acre. The land 

 is ploughed twice, raked smooth and rolled lightly. The seed 

 is sowed by machine, in rows from ten to thirteen inches apart. 

 I prefer the short orange, as the soundest and heaviest root ; 

 the crown being very large and the point thick. It is more 

 easily harvested, and does not lose in weight like the long 

 orange, the long tap of which is apt to wilt after being kept 

 three or four months in the cellar. I sow carrots as soon as the 

 ground becomes warm in the spring. I raise them for my 

 horses ; having found them to be an expensive root, and of 

 small benefit to my milch cows or store cattle. My crop this 

 year was six hundred bushels on ninety rods of land. 



Ruta-bagas require lighter land and less manure than either 

 of the before mentioned roots. The best crops I have ever had, 

 were raised on new gravelly soil, ploughed about six inches, 

 enriched with about four cords of manure harrowed in after 

 ploughing. Roll the land lightly, and sow the seed with 

 machine. In this way a solid, smooth root may be raised. On 

 old land ruta-bagas make long necks and rough bodies. They 

 are the cheapest root raised, and the most valuable for store 

 and fatting cattle. Tiie seed I use is " Skirving's King of the 

 Swedes," imported by the Massachusetts Society. In order to 

 avoid the ravages of insects, and to prevent the root from being 

 overripe in the autumn, sow ruta-bagas about the 20th of June. 



