POLICY OF GROWING DIFFERENT ROOT CROPS. 5 



break up tlie old furrow slice, and mix the soil quite 

 sufficiently for the purposes of cultivation, without dis- 

 turbing the fine tilth on the surface, so desirable for 

 the seed-bed. It rarely happens on the stronger class of 

 soils suitable for parsnips, that the plough could be 

 used with any advantage at the early period necessary 

 for preparing the land for sowing: the finely divided 

 surface soil is buried, and wet slices, more or less cohesive, 

 are exchanged for it, which it is well-nigh impossible to 

 reduce to the desired tilth at that season of the year. On 

 the lighter class of soils, especially if the season has been 

 moderately dry, the plough may be used, and the surface 

 reduced to the desired tilth by rolling and harrowing in 

 the usual way. This adds somewhat to the cost of the 

 crop, and at the same time, by delaying the work, increases 

 the risk of getting in the seed at the period most suited 

 to the crop and to the general arrangements of the farm. 

 The time recommended for sowing parsnips is towards 

 the end of February or beginning of March, and they 

 are ready for " lifting" about the end of October. This 

 early seed-time is a point of some advantage on a farm 

 where the breadth of root crop to be sown is consider- 

 able, and is one of the inducements for their more general 

 cultivation. By admitting the different root-producing 

 plants already described to a share of the acreage in- 

 tended for the root crop each year, the average produce 

 of the several portions would without doubt, in the 

 course of years, greatly exceed that which would have 

 been obtained from the same area occupied entirely by 

 either one of them ; as the different periods of the year 

 at which they are sown, the different effects of seasons, 

 wet or dry, upon their growth, and the different injuries 

 they sustain from the attacks of insects and diseases, 

 would tend to check any great loss that might be sus- 

 tained by the failure of any one crop, and thus give a 



