312 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



more cords of manure to the acre yearly ; and the amount of 

 profit will sometimes depend upon the outlay for manure, that 

 is, the more manure applied, the more profit, up to a certain 

 quantity, which quantity is seldom reached. And it is evident 

 that it requires the same, or about the same amount of labor to 

 plant and cultivate a crop only partially or stintcdly manured, 

 that it would if there had been a sufficient quantity applied, 

 and the crop would certainly be less, and usually of a poorer 

 quality, and therefore, if allowed to partially fail for want of 

 manure, would be costly grown. 



Then, as to the preparation of the land, the manure is to be 

 of the right kind, and properly prepared, and should be inti- 

 mately mixed with the soil, and the whole worked by the plough 

 and harrow very deep, and completely pulverized, breaking all 

 the lumps and reducing the whole soil to a fine tilth. 



This is very important with beets, carrots, parsnips, and we 

 may say for all crops ; for with a soil hard and full of lumps 

 we cannot grow good roots tliat are smooth and fit for market 

 purposes, neither can we have good results with the other 

 vegetables, without this fine tilth. There are some other crops, 

 the onion for instance, which would be better with a much less 

 depth of ploughing ; but there must be the same fine tilth at 

 the surface as with the other crops. 



Having made this thorough preparation of the soil, we next 

 come to the seed, and this is one of the most important things 

 in the whole business of market gardening, and one perhaps as 

 little understood and appreciated, except by the men most active 

 in this business, and we desire to call the particular attention of 

 the farmers and gardeners to this matter of seeds ; and what 

 we may have to say about garden seeds, will apply with equal 

 force to the other seeds used by the farmer. 



In the lecture of Professor Law, before the Board of Agricul- 

 ture, at its recent meeting at Framingham, upon the breeding 

 of domestic animals, he urged the importance of breeding from 

 pure blood, and that by the admixture of bad blood a breed 

 of animals would deteriorate, and for breeding purposes would 

 become of much less value. 



We would agree to that proposition in every particular, and 

 would also say that it is just as true in regard to the breeding 

 of vegetables. 



