THE TURNIP CROP. 315 



ought to be attended to, if we judge by the aspect of some 

 fields, in which it is difficult to say which has the mastery, 

 the crop or the weeds. Direct and decided is the evidence 

 which his fields present in this respect, as to the ability of 

 the farmer. To say that we have been ashamed when we 

 have seen, as we have too often seen, weeds abundant and 

 rampant, is to put it in the mildest way possible for us. 

 Weeds exhaust the soil, and draw away the food of the 

 crop, which it is the aim of the farmer to produce in such 

 perfection as he can secure, and it is obvious that this per- 

 fection will be far from being arrived at, if the food in the 

 soil be given in great measure to the weeds in place of to 

 the crop. All such remarks are commonplace enough, but we 

 are not sure but more practical results are obtained by giving 

 force to the statement of such commonplace remarks, which 

 being so, are too often neglected and entirely overlooked. 



115. In conclusion, the briefest of paragraphs may be 

 devoted with some degree of value to the subject of filling 

 up the blanks in our root crop drills with plants taken 

 from seed beds. This is now being done by many amongst 

 us ; and it has for a long time been an established practice 

 in some districts of the Continent. Although opposed to 

 the opinion of some, nay, we may say of many, the ex- 

 perience of a well-known Continental authority goes to 

 prove that the roots produced from transplanted plants 

 are better and heavier than those grown in the ordinary 

 way. But be this as it may, it is clear enough that 

 where blanks do exist in drills, it certainly is worth while 

 to fill them up with plants of some kind or another ; all 

 the more that the process of transplanting is very quickly 

 done, and no excuse on the score of loss or waste of time 

 is thus open. We have known the system practised with 

 most advantageous results, and, indeed, when we see such 

 spaces of land doing nothing, or worse than nothing as 

 growing weeds we always think of what Sir Watyer Scott 

 said about trees as being exceedingly suggestive 



" Aye be sticking in a tree here and there, 

 It'll be growing while you are sleeping. " 



