MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 735 



I have known fair fields of onions to be nearly destroyed by 

 starting the weeds between the rows, after they had been suf- 

 fered to remain, in the busy season of haying, one iveek too 

 long. Any disturbance of the delicate fibres of these plants 

 has a most injurious effect upon their growth. So, I think, 

 would be the crowding of carrots too near. It not unfrequcntly 

 happens, that much is lost by grasping at too much. 



In Loudon's Encyclopcedia of Agriculture the carrot is said 

 to be a native of Britain, growing in its wild state, in chalky 

 or sandy soils, and often in waste lands, and by the road sides. 

 Thus grown, the root is small, dry, woody, and of a light, pale 

 color ; but when cultivated on good soil, it becomes large, suc- 

 culent, of a rich yellow or straw color ; so unlike the original, 

 as scarcely to be recognized as of the same family. 



TURNIPS. 



The turnip, with many, is the " crop of crops," " the one 

 thing needful on the farm." Such, if I do not mistake, was 

 the doctrine taught by the eminent farmer of Marshfield, on 

 his return from the view of culture in England ; and he illusr 

 trated his faith by his works, as every one who ever viewed 

 his broad acres, in the autumn, will be able to bear testimony. 



In the English books the turnip culture is spoken of as "the 

 sheet anchor" of light soil cultivation, and the basis of the 

 alternate system of English husbandry, to which every class 

 of the community is so much indebted." IVIr. N. Biddle (in 

 an address to the Philadelphia Society, 1842) says : " Although 

 our frosts interfere with the English plan of feeding turnips 

 from the ground during winter, still there can be no question 

 that great advantages may be derived, by our farmers, from 

 the cultivation of the turnip, to be laid up as green and succu- 

 lent food for stock, to be used conjointly with hay and other 

 kinds of provender." Had Mr. Webster's opinion of the value 

 of the turnip crop been drawn from facts observed in his own 

 fields, or in his own stable, I should value it more highly than 

 when founded- on English husbandry. A slight variance in 

 the component elements of the soil, or subsoil, or in the atmos- 

 phere that hovers over them, may essentially vary the result. 

 Turnips can be grown at much less expense than either of the 

 other crops — only about one-third — ^if the estimate of Mr. 



