ROOT CROPS. 71 



ment that will lighten the soil and kill the weeds. In ten days another 

 crop of weeds will appear, which should be killed in the same way, 

 and then the second deep plowing may immediately follow, bringing a 

 large part of the manure to the surface. Harrowing, rolling, cultivating, 

 and harrowing again, with short intervals between, will now fit the plot 

 for ridging and raking, or for raking, if it is to be sown flat, while but 

 few weeds will appear from the foulest land during the remainder of 

 the season. The man who has raised Eoot Crops with but one plow- 

 ing and harrowing before raking, will say that he can not afford such 

 expensive preparation of the soil as this, but one careful trial of a 

 method similar to this will convince him that he can not afford to sow 

 without it. The hoed crops of this country are annually less profitable 

 by millions of dollars, than they would be if there was more thorough 

 previous preparation of the soil. A man and horse, or pair of horses, 

 will do ten times as much weed killing and soil mellowing before a cix)p 

 is planted, as they can afterward. The effect of such thorough prepa- 

 ration of the soil will also be seen in many successive crops, as well as 

 in the first. We would like to say much of the value of Roots, but 

 have only space for a word. There is much labor in handling twenty- 

 five or thirty tons, (a fair crop for an acre), it is true, but this amount 

 will do much toward carrying a large stock through the winter with 

 poor hay, in fine condition and good flesh, thus avoiding one of the 

 most expensive mistakes made by farmers — that of allowing their stock 

 to consume in winter the stock of fat accumulated from the rich feed 

 of summer, and come out in spring mere skeletons. 



We hope that next year a large number of entries and a really sharp 

 competition may attest the fact that the farmers of Worcester North are 

 waking up to the importance of Root Crops, and determined to reap 

 the benefit to be derived only from their thorough cultivation and high 

 manuring. 



GEO. S. HOUGHTON, Chairman. 



Statement of Ehenezer Bird. 



RUTA EAGAS. 



The crop of 1867 was grass — no manure was used; in 1868, the 

 ame ; the soil is lightest loam ; it was plowed once, 7 inches deep ; 



