114 ON ROOT CROPS. 



expense, and is of comparatively little value for stock, although, 

 1 think it better to raise them than no roots at all. 



With me the cultivation of the Parsnip has been attended 

 with considerable uncertainty and expense, proving unprofit- 

 able either for the market or stock, although a delicious vege- 

 table for the table. 



The Onion crop I have found to be about as profitable and 

 safe for the farmer to invest in as any. Notwithstanding the 

 blights, and attacks of lice and cut worms to which it is liable, 

 we generally have a crop that repays for the labor bestowed 

 upon it. 



Marblehead, Nov. 13, 1850. 



BENJAMIN ROGERS'S STATEMENT. 



I offer for premium a crop of Mangel Wurtzel, raised on one 

 hundred and twenty-three rods of land, the product being three 

 hundred and sixty baskets, weighing twenty-two thousand 

 three hundred and twenty pounds, or at the rate of twenty- 

 seven thousand nine hundred pounds per acre. 



The soil is a light sandy loam, and is called by most persons 

 very poor land, not worth cultivating. A crop of white beans 

 was taken from the land last year, amounting to five bushels. 

 The manure applied was three bushels plaster of Paris. This year 

 it had eleven cords of compost, one third part barn manure and 

 two thirds sand dug from the barn yard ; all the manure was 

 put into drills. It was ploughed on the 8th of May, and on 

 the 11th and 13th of May the land was furrowed with a plough 

 drawn by a horse, going twice in the same furrow ; the ma- 

 nure was put into the furrow, and covered with a plough, mak- 

 ing a small ridge ; the ridge was then raked so as to make the 

 ground nearly level. The holes for the seeds were made by a 

 wheel containing pegs in its circumference, which penetrated 

 the ground one inch, leaving intervals of four inches. The 

 rows were thirty inches asunder ; one capsule was dropped into 

 each hole, and covered with the feet, by treading on each hole. 



