ROOT CULTURE. 105 



as the most ready means of keeping up the fertility 

 of our farms and of increasing the profits of their 

 cultivation. 



CARROT AND RUTA-BAOA CULTURE. 



The following is a brief account of my method of 

 cultivating the carrot and ruta-baga. My opinion in 

 regard to profit is in favour of the carrot. As to the 

 relative value, I have entertained the opinion that 

 the same weight of carrots is worth, for stock, near- 

 ly double that of the ruta-baga. I fed my work- 

 horses on carrots from November, 1836, till June, 

 1837, three span ; they remained in good plight, and 

 performed as much as I ever had any within that 

 length of time ; they ate no grain ; nothing but hay 

 and carrots, thrown whole into the manger. I have 

 raised one thousand bushels of carrots or over, year- 

 ly, for three years past, on an acre of land. 



In 1836 1 raised between two and three thousand 

 bushels of ruta-bagas. They produced from six to 

 seven hundred bushels to the acre. They grew very 

 large : the largest one weighed thirty and a half 

 pounds. The land was stony and gravelly, made 

 mellow and ridged high with the plough, two and a 

 half feet or over apart from centre to centre. The 

 seed was planted about the 10th of June, which I 

 found to be late enough. Method of planting : one 

 man goes forward with the hoe, and makes marks 

 for the seed in the centre of the ridges, about twen- 

 ty inches apart, which is very quick done, nearly as 

 fast as a man would walk ; another man follows as 

 fast with the seed, and drops From four to five seeds 

 into the place with his thumb and fore finger, and 

 covers them at the same instant with the remaining 

 three fingers. In this way I think a smart man 

 would drop the seeds and cover two acres a day. 



The same year, 1836, 1 raised one acre of carrots, 

 which produced over one thousand bushels. 1 meas- 

 ured one rod of the ground whe"e the carrots ap- 



