2 



cording to the quantity of turnips you have to provide for, there deposit your ruta 

 baga after they are dug and trimmed, and raise the pile in a sloping form like the 

 pitched roof of a house. Do this after the dirt has been knocked off the turnips, 

 and they have become as dry as circumstances will admit. Lay on the heap a thin 

 layer of straw, and a thin covering of earth, leaving the south end of the heap, 

 which should be made north and south, to be stopped up with several loose bundles 

 of straw. Then make a few holes with a crow-bar to act as ventilators until the 

 first heat of the turnips i3 over. Let them remain in this condition until the cold 

 increases, so that they are in danger of freezing; then put another layer of straw 

 and another covering of dirt, smoothed down neatly with the spade, so that it may 

 shed the rain. Your turnips in this way will keep well all winter, and access to them 

 will be easy through the winter at the south end, by removing the loose bundles of 

 straw, and afterwards carefully replacing them. The straw and dirt, by the aid of 

 frost, will make a perfect roof to your turnip house, which will stand firm until the 

 frost is gone. I have kept hundreds of bushels for my stock in this way; and if a 

 farmer desires in the feeding season to make accurate calculations of the amount 

 consumed as he goes on, he can put them up in heaps of one or two hundred bushels 

 each in different parts of his field, managing with them in the way I have described. 

 The cultivation of green esculent vegetable crops cannot be too strongly urged upon 

 our farmers. We shall never reach an improved husbandry until we get into a reg- 

 ular system of rotation of crops; and green feed for our winter feeding forms a part 

 of that rotation. Condiments or esculents of this sort are as important for our cat- 

 tle as potatoes and other vegetables are upon the farmer's table. The condition of our 

 cattle, and especially our young stock and our milking stock, would be greatly im- 

 proved by them. This green feed can be produced in many cases at a less ex- 

 pense than long feed. It makes, from the exact cultivation required, an excellent 

 preparation for grain; and it supplies under proper management, directly and effi- 

 ciently the means of enriching our farms, and of increasing their productiveness in 

 a rapid ratio. H. C. 



(Note C. — p. 19.) Draining. 

 According to the testimony of Mr. Kennedy, formerly M. P., and Mr. James 

 Smith of Deanston, England, the author of this system of draining and inventor of 

 the sub-soil plough, before a committee of the British Parliament, these drains where 

 tiles are used, are sunk to a depth of twenty-four inches, and where stones are used, 

 are sunk to a depth of thirty inches; the object in each case being to stir the ground in 

 the course of improvement with the subsoil plough, to the depth of sixteen inches, with- 

 out disturbing the tiles or the drain. When stones are used the ditch is sunk to the 

 depth of 30 inches ; small stones are then thrown in promiscuously to a height of 12 

 inches; and then a sod of 2 or 3 inches thick, inverted, is laid over the stones to 

 prevent the dirt falling in and stopping the passage of the water; the top is then 

 filled up and the field left smooth. The centre or main drain into which the cross 

 drains empty, is sunk to the depth of three feet. These drains are durable and 

 effectual. Tiles have not been used among us; but nearly twelve years ago, I made 

 several hundreds of rods of these covered drains with small rough stone, as above 

 described, in order to drain a wet field. The drains continue to operate well to this 

 time. The value of the land was increased tenfold; and the increased crops soon 



