616 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



the only agricultural paper, and was still far from paying its way, we published 

 accounts of four hundred bushels of ruta-bagas to the acre, and gave full instruc- 

 tions about them. Cobbett was the first to make a great stir about them in our 

 country. It will be seen that Johnston rates an average crop al not much short 

 of one thousand bushels. 



As far back as 1821 — twenty .six years ago — we published an account of a crop 

 of turnips, 834 heaping bushels made on an acre of land, by Joseph W. Marcji 

 of Greenland, who gave under his own signature the following account of the 

 mode of culture : 



Last full about one-half of the lot was plowed, and it was intended the whole should have 

 been plowed, but the early hard frost prevented. Last spring about eight loads of compost 

 manure were spread on the ground and plowed in, two-thirds of which probably was swamp 

 and mixed with barn-yard dung. 



On tlie 18th of June, I began to plant the seed. After harrowing the ground, seven fur- 

 rows were made lengthwise the piece, three and a half feet apart, with a horse plow. Into 

 these furrows good barn-yard manure was shoveled from a cart passing alongside, at the 

 rate of about fourteen loads per acre. Then a strong ox-team with a good plow passing 

 up one side and down on the other, plowing very deep, formed a high ridge directly over 

 the manure. After the seven ridges were plowed, a horse going between two ridges with 

 a light roller leveled the tops ; then a hoe was drawn along to make a small furrow for the 

 seed. Previous to dropping it, some manure was strewed along at the rate of four to five 

 loads per acre, in order to force the growth of the young plants, when first up, that the 

 fly might not destroy them. A boy then dropped the seed along the ridges, a few in 

 a place, about a foot apart, then covering them with a hoe completed the mamier ot 

 Bowing. 



The principal labor in the after culture, was the fii'st weeding and thinning out the plants. 

 But as this was done in the season of hay making, at times when the weather was unfit for 

 making hay, the expense is considered trifling. I should judge, however, that the labor of tiie 

 after culture is about equal to that of Indian corn. 



The produce of the acre is eigJit hundred and thirty-four heaped bushels of turnips, be- 

 sides of leaves what was judged to be about five tons. The expense of harvesting wascom- 

 paratively very small ; the whole being done in apart of one day. Upon calculation made of 

 the time, and number of hands employed, it appeared that five men could easily have pulled 

 them up, gathered them into carts, and housed them (after hauling them a distance of more 

 than a quarter of a mile) in one day. 



In the same year we published an account from Thomas Hillen, near Balti- 

 more — as truthful a man as any to be found in a day's ride, and as a practical 

 farmer, an honor to the State. He had turnips to measure from twenty-nine to 

 thirty and a half inches round, and gathered from one-quarter of an acre 155 

 bushels ; from Sf acres and 14 perches, although part of the ground was made 

 quite unproductive by superfluous moisture — 1,665 bushels. They weighed 

 61 pounds to the bushel ; from an eighth of an acre he got 5,108 pounds ; 

 from a quarter of an acre 9,455 ; and from the three-and-a-quarter acres and 

 fourteen perches 101,565 pounds. Agricultural Societies have continued to offer 

 premiums for patches of turnips, and will to the end of the chapter. This mode 

 of proceeding produces, as is seen, that sort of excitement which is begotten by 

 lotteries. They would do much better to offer a premium of $50 or a piece of 

 plate ; and better still, books of the value of $50, for the best Essay — one that 

 should most thoroughly discuss and indicate to the agricultural community, 

 whether, and under what circumstances, and for what uses, turnips can be pro- 

 fitably sustitutedfor other crops. In the one case they would elicit and impart 

 valuable practical information ; in the other tliey stimulate some man to go to 

 an enormous expense on a quarter of an acre, to have it said that he won a prize 

 for doing what has been done for the last thirty years by others. 



The New- York State Agricultural Society awarded the following premiums 

 lately at Albany, for the following root crops. The one for turnips goes to show 

 what can be done, and ought to be satisfactory as to the soil and climate of this 



^95ti) 



