136 THE PRINCIPLES OF 



pay rent neglect potash, at all events with reference to the 

 turnip crop. They use it upon the potato crop, but 

 they adhere to superphosphate in the case of turnips. 

 Superphosphate gives an available quantity of phosphoric 

 acid, and being easily drilled with the water-drill or dry-drill, 

 it is brought into close contact with the young plants, and 

 the effect of the superphosphate upon a young turnip is very 

 extraordinary. One of the chief uses of the superphosphate 

 is to carry the young plants past the stage in which they are 

 only represented by the cotyledon leaves, until they graduate 

 into the rough leaf, when they are comparatively free from 

 the attacks of the turnip fly. In addition the superphosphate 

 exercises an excellent effect in the later stages of growth. 



I have endeavoured to show that turnip cultivation is 

 complicated, because it entails the cleaning of the ground, 

 the bringing of the soil into a highly fertile condition, the 

 management of the plant during the whole of its growth. 

 Turnip cultivation is therefore the most difficult, the most 

 complicated and the most expensive of any. A man 

 who is able to manage his turnip breadth will be able 

 to manage the rest of his cultivations, and if he has a 

 sufficient force of horses upon the farm, and of men to 

 manage his turnip breadth, he will have ample force to carry 

 on the rest of the farm. The weakest link of a chain is the 

 measure of its strength ; and in the economy of managing a 

 farm the test crop is the root crop. 



Next we come to the cultivation of corn. This is a com- 

 paratively easy matter. No business pursuit is easier than 

 corn cultivation, and that is why we have such millions of 

 bushels of corn thrown in upon us. It is a cheap cultivation. 

 All we have to do is to plough the land, throw on the seed, and 

 scratch it in. Of course we must do this at~the right time of 

 the year, and in a proper manner. When we take wheat, or 

 barley, or oats, after a root crop fed on ths land, a very general 



