286 THE TURNIP CROP. 



and leaves, is expected to abstract from the soil and the 

 atmosphere, and elaborate into forms of substances suitable 

 for animal food, an amount of matter equal to 1,000,000 

 times its own original weight. To enable it to achieve 

 this end successfully the cultivator is expected to have 

 previously secured for it all the conditions which experi- 

 ence and theory have shown to be necessary for its healthy 

 and vigorous development. It is necessary that the soil 

 should be deep enough to allow its branching rootlets 

 full range in search of food; that it should be in a state 

 of minute division, so as to present, in each particle, the 

 largest possible amount of surface to the fertilizing action 

 of the air and moisture, always in contact with them, 

 and thus add at once to the feeding surface and food 

 materials of the plant ; that no stagnant water should 

 exist, which always sours and chills the soil, and is opposed 

 to cultivation, but that the soil should contain moisture 

 sufficient for the healthy development of the plant, a point 

 materially influenced by the foregoing conditions of depth 

 and fineness of division of its particles; and lastly, that 

 all the food materials which the plant requires to com- 

 plete its full growth should be present in the soil in suf- 

 ficient quantities, and in an immediately available condi- 

 tion, as the plant being a quick grower is, of necessity, a 

 quick feeder. The differences that we so frequently see 

 in the turnip crops in the same districts, where the same 

 climatal influences and insect visitations occur, are gener- 

 ally attributable to the more or less perfect observance of 

 these necessary conditions. They are simple in themselves, 

 involving no difficulties in their comprehension or execu- 

 tion; if it is good policy to cultivate turnips at all, it 

 surely is the best policy to take advantage of every circum- 

 stance which will enable us to do so with the "greatest 

 chances of success, and thus produce the largest and most 

 remunerative returns. 



