170 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



to illustrate the importance of good ploughing and 

 thorough pulverization in tillage husbandry. We 

 invite attention to the cut, and then to the explana- 

 tion in the words of Tull. 



" A method to find the distance to which roots extend 

 horizontally. A piece or plat, dug and made fine, in 

 whole, hard ground (Fig. 1), the end A two feet, the 

 end B 12 feet, the length of the piece 20 yards: 

 the figures in the middle of it are 20 turnips, sown 

 early and well hoed. The manner of this hoeing 

 must be at first near the plants, with a spade, and 

 each time afterward a foot distance, till the earth be 

 once well dug ; and, if weeds appear where it has 

 been so dug, hoe them out shallow with the hand- 

 hoe. But dig all the piece next the outlines deep 

 every time, that it may be the finer for the roots to 

 enter when they are permitted to come thither. If 

 the turnips be all bigger as they stand nearer to the 

 nd B, it is a proof that they all extend to the out- 

 side of the piece, and the turnip 20 will appear to 

 draw .nourishment from six feet distance from its 

 centre. But if the turnips 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 ac- 



Su're no greater bulk than the turnip 15, it will be 

 ear that their roots extend no farther than those cf 

 the turnip 15 does, which is but about 4 feet. By this 

 method the extent of the roots of any plant may be 

 discovered. There is another way to find the length 

 of roots, by making a long narrow trench at the dis- 

 tance you expect they will extend to, and fill it with 

 salt ; if the plant be killed by the salt, it is certain 

 that some of its roots enter it. 



" What put me upon trying this method was an ob- 

 servation of two lands or ridges (Fig. No. 2), drilled 

 with turnips in rows, a foot asunder, and very even 

 in them ; the ground at both ends and on one side 

 was hard and unploughed. The turnips, not being 

 hoed, were very poor, small, and yellow, except the 

 three outside rows,., c, d, which stood next to the 

 land (or ridge) E, which land, being ploughed and 



