ROOT CULTURE. 73 



try, is correct ; and there is little room for douln that 

 the same result will follow in the newer districts, 

 unless a more rational mode of culture>is introduced 

 and practised. That course has been pointed out in 

 a lucid manner in Chapter I. of this volume. In a 

 few words, it consists in draining, tillage, manures, 

 roots, and a rotation of crops. The ruinous practice 

 of exhausting our lands by continued cropping must 

 be abandoned; roots and clover must take their 

 places with the grains ; and a better^and more eco- 

 nomical system of making and managing manures 

 must be adopted before our agriculture can rank 

 with that of the most favoured nations. Editors.] 



CHAPTER III. 



ROOT CULTURE. 



The Potato. Manures. Early Potatoes. Choice of Kinds. 

 Mode of Planting. Harvesting the Crop. Sorting the Cro^. 

 Wintering the Trap. Culture. Beet. Carrot. Parsnip. 

 Turnip. Introductory Remarks. METHODS OF FEEDING 

 ROOTS. Report by Judge Buel. Col. Meacham on the Carrol 

 and Ruta Baga. 



I. THE POTATO. 



EVERY farmer cultivates the potato, but few farm- 

 ers cultivate it as profitably as they might. The 

 average crop does not probably exceed one hundred 

 bushels an acre.* It may be made to exceed three 



[* We are inclined to think that Judge Buel has underrated in 

 this place the average of the potato crop in this country. In 

 some instances in which the quantity on considerable tracts has 



