274 



Rutabaga. 



Vol. ir. 



size, a drill harrow, with small shares fixed to 

 it, to cut off all the weeds, was passed through 

 the rows ; and the plants were thinned with 

 a small weeding hoe, to the distance of about 

 eight inches apart, and the vacant places fil- 

 led up by transplanting from the supernume- 

 rary plants. They were once more harrow- 

 ed and cleaned, which was a very small la- 

 bor; and owing to the very unpropitious 

 weather, were not harvested until very late. 



"Some of them were very large; one 

 weighed fifteen pounds, and many were near- 

 ly as large. The exact expense of cultiva- 

 ting the acre cannot be estimated, as it was 

 intermixed with other farm work ; but the 

 whole, from the sowing to the gathering, was 

 not two thirds of the labor usually bestowed 

 on planting, cultivating, and gathering an 

 acre of potatoes. 



" My Sweedish turneps the last year, of 

 which I raised considerable quantities, were 

 fed off to my oxen, dry cows, young stock, 

 and fatting sheep. To the cattle they were 

 of very great advantage; and for feeding 

 sheep, they proved the last year by an accurate 

 account, worth from ten to twelve and a half 

 cents per bushel. The man who has the care 

 of my stock considers them as among the 

 most profitable feed whicli can be given 

 either to fatting or to store cattle. Three 

 years experiment has increased their value 

 very much for these purposes in my own 

 estimation. 



A correspondent in the New England 

 Farmer, Vol. xi., page 277, writes thus :— " A 

 wish to have others profit by my experience 

 has induced me to send you, Mr. Editor, half 

 a sheet of remarks on the culture of the ruta- 

 baga as a food for domestic animals. I have 

 CTiltivated from half an acre to three acres of 

 this root every year for thirteen years in suc- 

 cession, and feci competent to give rules for 

 its culture, and confidence in recommending 

 it as a valuable and profitable crop. 



"The soil must be rich and dry; and the 

 more it inclines to a sand loam the better.— 

 Clay is the worst, and wet soils will not an- 

 swer at all. 



PREPARATION. 



My general practice has been, to manure 

 well a piece of pasture, or clover ley, from 

 which the hay has first been cut, plough it 

 handsomely over, and harrow it well. 



SOWING. 



I sow in rows at two and a half or three feet, 

 with a drill harrow. The sooner the prece- 

 ding operations succeed each otlier the belter. 

 I have sown broadcast, but the expense of 

 thinning and culture is increased. A man 

 will drill in, three or four acres a day. We 

 allow a pound of seed to the acre, though 

 half this, properly distributed is enouo-li.— 

 kaw from the 26tli of June, to the 10th of July. 



CULTURE. 



I use a cultivator, that may be graduated 

 to the space between the rows, drawn by a 

 horse, as soon as the plants can be well dis- 

 tinguished. This is repeated in a few days, 

 back and forward, and the implement carried 

 so close to the drills, as to leave only strips 

 of from four to ten inches, which are then 

 thoroughly cleaned with a skim hoe, and the 

 plants thinned to eight and ten inches' dis- 

 tance. The cultivator soon follows for a 

 third time, and if necessary, the skim hoe, 

 when the crop is generally left till harvest. 

 The great aim is to extirpate the weeds, and 

 to do this while they are small. 



HARVESTING 



Is postponed as long as the season will per- 

 mit. The roots are then pulled up and laid 

 on the ground, the tops of the two rows to- 

 wards each other. The pullers are followed 

 by a man or boy with a bill hook, who with a 

 light blow cuts the tops as fast as three or 

 four can pull. Three men will in this way 

 harvest, of a good crop, three hundred bushels 

 in a day. 



" The tops are gathered into heaps and ta- 

 ken to the yard in carts daily, or the stock, 

 until they are consumed. An acre will give 

 from five to ten cart loads of tops. The roots 

 are piled in the field if dry; the pits, two or 

 two and a half feet broad, covered with straw 

 and earth, and as cold weather approaches, 

 with manure, to prevent frost. N. B. — With 

 a crowbar make one or more holes on the 

 crown of the pit, which must be left open, to 

 let ofi'the rarified air, and prevent the roots 

 from heating. 



USE. 



The tops serve for autumn. As soon as 

 the mild weather of spring will justify, I 

 break througli the frost, and take the contents 

 of a pit to my barn, and cover the roots with 

 straw or hay. From thence they are fed to 

 my stock, being first chopped up with a snik, 

 (Dutch meat-chopper,) or spade. They are 

 excellent for sheep, especially for ewes that 

 have young; and hogs and horses eat them 

 freely. Steamed, they are used in the north 

 of England for horses as a substitute for grain. 



"I have fattened sheep and bullocks upon 

 them with profit. They constitute, particu- 

 larly from February to June, an excellent 

 culinary vegetable for the table. A bullock 

 will thrive fast upon two bushels a day, and 

 will consume hardly any hay, and requires 

 no drink. 



PRODUCT AND COST. 



My average crop has been six hundred 

 bushels per acre, though others have raised 

 much heavier products. The cost in manure 

 and labor, when they are secured for winter, 

 has been from two lo three cents per bushel.* 



