THE SCIENCE AND PRACTICE 



ROOT CULTIVATION. 



CHAPTER I. 



ON THE ORIGIN OP ROOT CROPS. 



Eew people who have studied the matter attentively 

 hut have arrived at the conclusion that those plants 

 which we cultivate for their roots were not naturally 

 endowed with the root portion of their structure 

 either of the size or form which would now be con- 

 sidered as essential for a perfect crop plant. Thus the 

 parsnip, carrot, turnip, beet, &c, as we find them in 

 nature, have nowhere the large, fleshy, smooth 

 appearance which belongs to their cultivated forms ; 

 and hence all the varieties of these that we meet with 

 in cultivation must be considered as derivatives from 

 original wild forms, obtained by cultivative processes ; 

 that is, collecting their seed, planting it in a prepared 

 bed, stimulating the growth of the plants with 

 manures, thinning, regulating, weeding, and such 

 other acts as constitute farming or gardening, as the 

 case may be. 



Hence, then, it is concluded that such plants as are 



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