46 CARROTS, MANGOLDS AND SUGAR BEETS. 



though it appears to give better results in dry scaspns than in 

 wet. The most striking effect from the application of large 

 quantities, in my experience, has been on the borders of 

 meadow land. A number of years ago I manured in the 

 furrow with refuse herring bait, salt and all, just as taken from 

 the fish barrels. The crop of Mangolds grown from this ma- 

 nuring was one of the largest and smoothest I ever raised. 

 The next season the land was planted to Oats. In the Fall, 

 while laying a heap of this oat straw in the barn, I chanced 

 to use one as a tooth-pick. It tasted as though it had been 

 pickled ; thinking it was the result of some accident, I took 

 another ; that also was salt. This aroused my curiosity and 

 on examination I found farther, to my great surprise, that 

 all the straw tasted as though it had been dipped in pret- 

 ty strong brine. Certainly this tremendous salting, over 

 and above what the crop of Mangolds could use, to all ap- 

 pearance, had not lessened the bulk of roots. On meadow 

 land, Mr. Ware of this town, thinks that in a dry season he 

 doubled his crop by the application of refuse salt, at the rate 

 of twenty-five bushels to the acre. In purchasing waste salt 

 for this or any other agricultural crop, it is best to get the 

 dirtiost lot possible, for this dirt is the waste of the fish on 

 which it has been used, and consists mostly of fish scales* 

 which for manuring purposes is decidedly the most valuable 

 part of the fish. For this reason the waste from salted her- 

 ring is probably the most valuable of all. Under the open 

 platforms where fish are dried, in sea-port towns, and from 

 which there is always some dripping, the rankest of grass 

 grows. Salt lessens the proportion of sugar in the roots. 



PLANTING THE SEED AND TENDING THE CROP. 



Our ground being now ready the next step is to plant it. 

 How much seed shall we need and how far apart shall we 

 have the rows? From four to six pounds of seed is the us- 



