858 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part III. 



5-104. One of the best turnip horse-hoes is formed from the skeleton of a common plough {fig. 159.), by 



759 



two coulters of iron curved inwards (a, b), and fixed to wooden bars {e, f, and c, <f), which last again are 

 hooked to the beam of the implement, and made, by means of a cross iron bar {g, h), to be set at a 

 greater or smaller distance from each other as it may be required. A broad iron share (i) rnoves in 

 the middle of the hollow of the ridges, while the two coulters on each side go as near to the rows of 

 turnips as can be done with safety ; and in this maimer the intervals of the ridges are tilled, and the 

 weeds within them, and as near to the plants as the coulters can go, cut up and destroyed. By removing 

 the wooden bar and coulters of this machine, and hooking to it, on each side, a small cast-iron mould- 

 board, it is converted to the double mould-board plough also, as we have seen. 



5405. The brakes w horse-hoes of VVilkie (2665.), Finlayson (2667.), or of Kirkwood (4955.), may easily 

 be set and arranged for this or any other description of culture ; so that it requires no new implements. 



5406. The hand-hoers go to work, each having a little iron hoe, fixed upon a wooden handle about three 

 f^v h.::^^-^-- ' -- feet in length {fig. 760.). The breadth of the blade ia) of this 



Yf """"' " e%^ ^^^ ^^ '^'S'^* '"ches ; and the workers, standing in the hollow 



\ -P-. IP'j'^S^Iff with their faces to the ridges, hoe the turnip plants, leaving 



Jb.) MJtaiaii'!:ilM n them standing singly, at the distance from each other of from 



ten to twelve inches. By this operation the rows of the turnips are cleaned of all weeds ; the superfluous 



plants cut up and pushed into the intervals, where they die ; and the plants to be preserved left standing 



singly at the distance required. A transverse section of the ridges will tlien appear thus {fig. 761.), and 



a longitudinal section thus : {fig. 1\ 

 they may increase to a proper size. 



The plants should not be nearer to each other than ten inches, that 



762 



5407. Second horse-hoeing. Soon after the operation in question, weeds will again sprout up in the 

 intervals of the ridges and amongst the plants. In the course, therefore, of twelve days or more the 

 horse-hoe again passes through the intervals of the ridges, cutting up all the weeds that may have sprung 

 up; and soon after the hand-hoers again go to work with the same instrument as before, cutting up all 

 weeds which may have grown amongst the turnips, and carefully singling any plants that may by chance 

 have been omitted in the first hoeing. After this process, a section of the ridges will appear thus : {fig. 763.) 



763 



5408. Third horse-hoeing. Sometimes the horse-hoe passes once more down the intervals after a short 

 period ; but more generally the previous hand-hoeing concludes the process upon all the drier lands, the 

 weeds being now kept down by the rapid growth of the plant, and the overshadowing of the intervals by 

 its leaves. Very commonly, however, at an interval of eight or ten days after the last hand or horse- 

 hoeing, the earth which had been taken from the roots of the plants by these several hoeings is again laid 

 back, either by the little one-horse plough already mentioned, or by the double mould-board plough, 

 passing down the intervals of the rows and ridging up the earth thus : {fig. 764.) The design in this ope- 



764 



ration is, that any weeds remaining in the intervals after the former hoeings may be destroyed, and that 

 the land and turnips may be kept more dry during wet weather and the months of winter. This concludes 

 the culture of the turnip, which now grows rapidly without further care; and by the beginning of Sep- 

 tember the leaves of a good crop will have covered the entire surface, making a transverse section of the 

 ridges appear thus: {fig. 765.) 



765 



5409. The Swedish turnip is cultivated, used, and stored precisely in the same manner 

 as the common turnip ; but it is generally sown several weeks earlier. It does not, 

 attain to the same weight by the acre ; and, as it is more difficult to raise, it ought to 

 receive a greater quantity of manure, and to be always upon good land. The Swedish 

 has a property which the common turnip has not, that of bearing to be transplanted 



