No. 11. 



Successful Cultivatio7i of Roots. 



171 



ploughing should, in my opinion, depend upon 

 that of the soil. The plough should at all 

 times run from six to eight inches deep, and I 

 have not been able to convince myself that 

 there was any advantage obtained from go- 

 ing deeper. The plants that we usually cul- 

 tivate, have heretofore yielded abundant crops 

 under this system, and I cannot imagine any 

 good reason why we should not be satisfied. 

 If a farmer has more manure than his land 

 will accommodate by the use of it after the 

 commonly approved methods, deep ploughing 

 and mixing the substratum of sand or clay 

 with his manure and soil may not do any 

 harm, but I take it to be an extravagant sys- 

 tem, calculated to wear out horses and ex- 

 haust the patience and the purse, without 

 any decided practical advantage. When we 

 find that soil and manure generously put on 

 and well mixed will yield heavy crops for 

 three years, and good ones for two years more, 

 I think we siiould be satisfied and not run the 

 risk of breaking the beams of our plouo-h?, 

 and the hearts of our men and our horses, to 

 search for a soil which when found will be 

 no better than that we already have. The 

 productiveness of a crop very much depends 

 upon the cultivation the land has previously 

 had. If it has been carefully ploughed and 

 grass or weeds should grow up with or get 

 the start of the crop, they will always keep 

 above it, and the desired crop must be pro- 

 portionally inferior. In land in which arti- 

 ficial grasses are cultivated, the roots of the 

 weeds and of the natural grasses should be 

 destroyed by tillage before tiie seed is sown, 

 otherwise they will prevail and the former 

 cannot make a crop. Practical men will, I 

 think, admit this to be of more importance 

 than deep ploughing. Penn. 



Agricultural Society of Butler Coiuity. 



The regular meeting of the Agricultural 

 Society of Butler county, Pennsylvania, was 

 held in the Borough of Butler on the 12th 

 December. The following named gentle- 

 men were elected officers for the ensuing 

 year. Hon. .John Bredin, President— John- 

 son White, Esq., and Col. Wm. M'Junkin, 

 Vice-Presidents— James Potts, Secretary— 

 Hon. John Gillmore, Gen. R. McNair, J. 

 McCurdy, Esq., Johnson Knight, Joseph Mur- 

 rin, R. H. McKee, Isaac Pearson, S. R. Wil- 

 liams, C. Buhl, Esq., Henry Sefton, John 

 Jack, John Dodds, J. McCandless, Epq., and 

 Thomas Seaton, Directors. Committee ap- 

 pointed to award premiums at the next Oc- 

 tober exhibition— William Cunningham, John 

 Welsh, Esq., John L. Maxwell, Robert 

 Hayes, Gen. Robert McNair, John Dodds, 

 Esq., and George Miller, Esq. The Presi- 

 dent, Judge Bredin, delivered the Annual 



Address, in accordance with a resolution 

 adopted at a former meeting. 



We hope that the example of the farmers 

 of Butler county will be followed in every 

 other county in the State. County Societies, 

 properly organized, and efficiently sustained, 

 must exert a salutary influence. 



From the G'piiesee Fanner. 



Snccessful Cultivation of Roots. 



My business is to work, and not to write 

 tor the press, but as you ask communications 

 from the farmer, I will in my plain way state 

 what I have experienced in the cultivation of 

 the Potatoe, Ruta Baga, and Mangel Wurt- 

 zel, Carrot, and Sugar Beet — manner of feed- 

 ing, storing, &c., and the quantity of roots I 

 raised this season. 



The Potatoe with me for ten years, the last 

 excepted, has been a fair crop, but by adher- 

 ing to the old method of tillage, has been 

 more expensive than is necessary, as I find 

 by the course I have adopted this season. I 

 planted three acres the 29th and 30th of 

 May; first ploughed, then manured with 

 coarse barn-yard manure ; then ploughed 

 again and harrowed. Struck out the rows 

 three feet apart with a one horse plough, say 

 five inches deep; dropping the seed eighteen 

 inches apart — turned back the furrow, and 

 the work was done. For hoeing first and 

 second time, the cultivator, so gaged as to 

 fill the whole space between the rows, was 

 passed through, followed by the hoe, giving a 

 slight dressing, but making little or no hill, 

 and the whole labor, after the ground was 

 fitted, did not exceed three and a half days' 

 work per acre. By the use of the plough 

 the seed was planted deep ; the potatoe never 

 takes a downward direction. The cultivator 

 loosened and mellowed the earth so as to al- 

 low the roots to extend, and to occupy nearly 

 the whole row. Get an expanding and 

 contracting culiivator. Get one ! get one '. t 

 The product was over 430 bushels per acre, 

 1300 bushels from the three acres. 



THE RUTA BAGA, 



1 had cultivated to a considerable extent 

 for three years with success. This year 1 

 planted three acres in drills, twenty-one 

 inches apart, 26th and 27th June. So soon 

 as up, I sifted house ashes and plaster, mixed 

 in equal quantities, at the rate of fifteen 

 bushels per acre, with wire sieves, row by 

 row, over the whole. The effect more than 

 answered my expectations : that little pest, 

 the turnep bug or fly, or its ravages, was not 

 seen at all, and the growth was most vigor- 

 ous. One acre of the piece had been planted 

 with carrots, only ibout one-fourth of which 



