236 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



rather infer that they never expect one-half of the seed will 

 come at all ; it would take all the season to thin them out. Of 

 turnips, somewhere about a pound. 



Mr. Brown, of Concord. How much beet seed ? 



Mr. Gregory. Beet seed is a seed hard to cOme up, for this 

 reason : it is of a somewhat large size, and it is apt to drop 

 out rather irregularly, and it needs to go to a considerable 

 depth. There should be as much as four pounds to the acre to 

 make that safe. I should say they should be planted an inch 

 and a half in depth, except the long, smooth, dark blood-beet, 

 the seed of which is rather large ; let them down two inches. If 

 dry, add a little to the depth ; if very wet, plant a little 

 shallower. 



After- Cultivation. — Now, we will suppose our seed sown and 

 our plants beginning to appear above ground, how should we 

 manage then ? You understand that the whole bed is full of 

 fermenting manure, and everything will grow fast. As soon as 

 you can discern the rows, put in the slide hoe and have tlie boys 

 follow tlie hoe, as soon as possible, on their hands and knees. 

 You will find that the best cultivators are those who attend to 

 these things earliest, and allow the smallest possible interval 

 between the slide hoe and the hand weeding. Again, it is safer 

 to weed when the weeds are very small, because you are not so 

 likely to disturb the plants. If you pull them when they get 

 large, especially in a dry time, you disturb the earth, and may 

 disturb the roots of the plants. 



Carrots come up slowly artd need to be looked sharply after. 

 It is rather difficult to see them. The man who weeds carrots 

 should have an experienced eye, and understand what the car- 

 rot is. Therefore, carrots must be watched very carefully and 

 the hoe nui through carefully. Onions can be more readily 

 seen. Sometimes people will allow weeds among carrots to get 

 some little size before they pull them, if the carrots went in 

 late and it is very hot, because a hot sun on young carrots 

 sometimes burns them. That must be a matter of judgment. 



We generally expect to weed our crops about four times. 

 (When I speak of crops I mean the carrot, the onion and the 

 beet, more especially.) We expect to slide them as often as 

 that, and perhaps five times. This depends somewhat on the 

 season. A very wet season, we expect to throw in one or two 



