PREPARATIONS AND MODE OF SOWING. 41 9 



the fresh soil and the weathered winter surface being again 

 buried, and the old and more or less exhausted surface 

 soil of the preceding year being again brought up to form 

 the seed-bed for the new crop. A turn of the grubber 

 across the line of ploughing will generally act more 

 efficiently than the plough; the work is done much quicker, 

 the surface is left unchanged, and the land is likely to 

 sustain far less injury from the pressure of the horses 

 employed than if the plough had been used. 



Owing to the early period at which mangold should be 

 sown, it is important that no chances of suitable weather 

 for the work of preparation should be neglected, as much of 

 the success of the future crop depends upon the conditions, 

 favourable or otherwise, under which it is got in. On 

 a farm where autumnal cultivation and preparation have 

 been judiciously carried out, and under ordinary circum- 

 stances as to soil and weather, the spring preparations 

 are readily made, and the land got into a suitable state 

 for the reception of the seed. This may be sown either 

 on. the flat or on the ridge, as described in the cultivation 

 of the turnip crop, at p. 301, and the mode of preparation 

 for either practice is the same as that already referred 

 to. The advantages of "sowing on the ridge" are chiefly 

 the greater facilities it gives for horse-hoeing and gene- 

 rally cleaning the land, and at the same time securing a 

 greater depth to the soil round the growing plant; its 

 disadvantages are the increased labour expenditure in 

 forming the ridges, and the increased surface it gives for 

 evaporation from the soil, which, in some districts and in 

 some seasons, is very prejudicial to the healthy growth of 

 the crop. This will account for the practice of ridging 

 for roots being so much more prevalent in some parts of 

 the country than in others in the north, for instance, 

 than in the south where the general system of farming 

 practices may be equally advanced. Whether the farm- 



