166 



ROOT CULTURE. 



be thrown into ridges, and the furrows kept open for the 

 free passage of the water in heavy rains. 



A rich soil is as essential to good crops, and particu- 

 larly to root crops, as nourishing and abundant food is to 

 the fattening of farm-stock. We all know that lean pas- 

 ture and coarse forage, although they may keep, will not 

 fatten cattle. It is equally true, that although farm-crops 

 will live and grow upon a poor soil, the product and profit 

 will be great only on a rich one. The advantage to the 

 crop, as well as to the animal, will be in proportion to the 

 quantity of organic matter which is converted into living 

 organic matter — into vegetables and into meat. Mere 

 earthy matters enter but minutely, or adventitiously, into 

 the structure of either. Hence the maxim, verified by 

 long experience, that it is better to cultivate one acre of 

 rich land than three acres of poor land. The expense 

 of cultivating the latter is threefold that of the former, 

 while the product of the one rich acre, is often equal to 

 the product of the three poor acres. Ordinarily speaking, 

 a good dressing of manure will double the products of a 

 root crop. To illustrate this fact more fully, we quote 

 the following tabular statement from Arthur Young's 

 experiments with potatoes. It is unnecessary to add, 

 that Mr. Young was one of the most intelligent and care- 

 ful agriculturists of the last generation. The prepara- 

 tion and culture were alike in all the cases noted below, 

 except that in those marked with an asterisk (*) the crop 

 was manured, and in the others the crop was not ma- 

 nured. 



