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take turnips up, as it is for the mangel wurzel, which, In 

 case of a long and severe winter, supplies the demand for 

 succulent food in the highest perfection lor beasts and for 

 lambing ewes in the spring, filling them with more milk 

 than turnips will, besides which, when sheep have been 

 used to it, they like it better than any other root, or cab- 

 bages. It should be dibbled or drilled, less than an inch 

 deep, on Northumberland ridges, twenty-seven inches 

 asunder, the latter end of April or first week in May ; and 

 left when hoed, each plant about fourteen inches apart. 

 Any deficiency in the crop to be made up by plants (not 

 too small), put in when the land is wet, with the roots not 

 doubled up, and an inch or more of the top part of the 

 root left out of the ground ; if the whole of the root is put 

 in (as planters are apt to do), a good root will not be 

 obtained, shoots will come from the top, and on taking the 

 root up in the autumn, it will be found with a great deal of 

 top, and a poor root, full of fibres.* My practice has been 

 to soak the seed till it sprouts a little, not too much, for 

 should the weather prove to be dry, there is danger of the 

 shoots dying, and the plants being lost. Drilling takes 

 treble the quantity of seed that dibbling does, but as 

 drilling is the surest way of getting a crop, it is prudent not 

 to let the extra quantity of seed be a consideration. 

 Dibbling in single seeds, 3 inches apart, and thinning the 

 plants when the size of a radish, which are then useful for 

 pigs, is a good plan. After trying many various ways of 

 cultivating it, I have this season (May 1 Ith, 1836), dibbled 

 the seed in holes made by a boy, pressing down by a handle 

 about four feet long, on the centre of the ridge, a piece of 

 wood, 16 inches long, and about four broad, with three pegs 



* I have the ridges for mangel wurzel set up as high as possible, that full 

 two-thirds of the root, when at its full growth, should, after being pulled 

 down with the hoe, be out of the ground. I have a very light wooden 

 roller run over the ridge to flatten the tops of them a little before 

 putting in the seed. I do not want the ridges so high for turnips ; 

 drought has more effect on them. In hoeing mangel wurzel, or turnips, 

 the ridges may be much pulled down, but afterwards set up with 

 a double mould-board horse hoe, which will not as it ought not push 

 the mould up again to the roots, but will well cover the dung, and thus 

 keep it moist ; the fine fibrous roots, being thus cut off in hoeing, will 

 shoot agaio, and gam nourishment from fresh earth. 



