ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 127 



crops which have to be cultivated. Different crops require 

 different systems of cultivation. I will take the root crop 

 first, and go through the rotation. The root crop requires 

 deep cultivation. Mangel-wurzel, carrots, swedes, kohlrabi, 

 rape, all like deep cultivation. They are all deep-rooted 

 plants, and they all enrich the surface of the soil by pumping 

 up material from the deeper layers of the subsoil, as well as 

 from the atmosphere, and when they are fed upon the surface 

 they enrich the top soil, upon which corn crops feed. It is 

 for these crops, therefore, that we chiefly use autumn cultiva- 

 tion. Autumn cultivation is a cultivation in autumn under- 

 taken for the root crop of the succeeding season. Now the 

 root crop is a cleaning crop and a fallowing crop. There- 

 fore, it is at this period of the rotation that cleaning operations 

 take place. The root crop also cannot be grown unless the 

 soil is rich. It must have plenty of available plant food, 

 because it takes such a short period to grow. Turnips may 

 be ready for consumption eight weeks after sowing, and if we 

 take from the 1st of June, when swedes may be sown to 

 advantage, to the 1st of November, when they almost cease to 

 grow, the period is short for accumulating fifteen, twenty, or 

 thirty tons of produce per acre. The plant requires its food 

 in abundance, and ready to hand, so that in root cultivation 

 we must apply plenty of fertilizers. It is a very expensive 

 and complicated cultivation. It is much more expensive, 

 much more complicated, and much more difficult than corn 

 cultivation. With reference to the actual tillages for roots, 

 they must be conducted in such a manner as to provide 

 a deep, moist, rich, and fine seed-bed. Now the cleaning 

 of land in the spring of the year is very apt to dry it, but 

 the cleaning of land in the autumn months does not dry 

 it, because we have the winter rainfall to come. Therefore, 

 if we can clean our land in the autumn, immediately after 

 harvest; if we can plough it up and get the dung in, and 



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