AGRICULTURE. 



of the year is buried in a dry cave, mixed 

 with the husks of dried oats, sand, or 

 leaves, especially if a hay or corn-stack is 

 erected over it. 



Potatoes are subject to a disease called 

 the curl, which has drawn the attention 

 of sagacious and experienced men, and 

 suggested, in consequence, a great varie- 

 ty of opinions on its cause and remedy. 

 Some kinds of this root, however, it is al- 

 most unanimously agreed, are less sus- 

 ceptible of the disease than others, and 

 the old red, the golden dun, and the long 

 dun, are the least of all so. One or more 

 of the following circumstances may be 

 most probably considered as causing it ; 

 frost, insects, the planting from sets of un- 

 ripe and large potatoes, the planting in 

 old and exhausted grounds, and too near 

 the surface, or the small shoots of the sets 

 being broken off before planting. Where 

 certainty on any interesting subject can- 

 not be obtained, the hints of the judicious 

 are always desirable. The methods most 

 successfully exercised for the prevention 

 of the curl are, to cut the sets from smooth 

 ripe potatoes, of the middle size, which 

 have been kept particularly dry, to guard 

 against the rubbing off the first shoots, 

 and to plant them rather deeply in fresh 

 earth, with a mixture of quick lime. 



No plant thrives better even in the cold- 

 est part of this island than the turnip, 

 and none are more advantageous to the 

 soil. Its introduction was an improve- 

 ment of the most valuable nature. There 

 is no soil which will not produce it, when 

 previously prepared for it by art ; but the 

 gravelly one is best of all adapted to it. 

 No root requires a finer mould than the 

 turnip, and with a view to this object, the 

 land intended for it should be exposed to 

 frost by ribbing it after the harvest. The 

 season for sowing must be regulated by 

 the time intended for feeding, the later 

 from the first of June to the end of July, 

 in proportion to the designed protraction 

 of this feeding. The field should be first 

 ploughed by a shallow furrow. Lime, if 

 necessary, should be then harrowed into 

 it. Single furrows, at the interval of three 

 feet, should be drawn, and dung laid in 

 them, which should be then covered by 

 going round it with the plough, and form- 

 ing the three feet spaces into ridges. 

 Wider rows answer no profitable object, 

 and with straiter ones a h orse h as not room 

 to walk. Thick sowing is far better than 

 thin, bearing better the depredations of 

 the fly, and forming also a protection 

 against drought. The weeds may, in 

 many cases, be most effectually extirpa- 



ted by women, without injuring the crop ; 

 and the standing turnips should be left at 

 twelve inches distance from each other. 

 On average seasons, with good prepara- 

 tion, the produce from this number per 

 acre may be considered as amounting to 

 46 tons of valuable nourishment. For pre- 

 servation they may be stacked with straw; 

 and 42 tons may be thus secured by one 

 load of straw, orof stubble andold haulm. 

 A method preferred by many is that of 

 sowing late crops, even in August, by 

 which a succession of them remains on 

 the field to be consumed on the spot, even 

 so late as the ensuing May, and the ad- 

 vantage of having turnips good till the 

 spring grasses are ready for food has 

 greatly encouraged this practice. To pre- 

 vent the devastations of the fly, the most 

 destructive enemy to a crop of turnips, 

 the most effectual methods as little de- 

 pendance can be placed on steepings, or 

 on fumigations, is to sow the seed at such 

 a season, that they may be well grown 

 before the appearance of the insect ; and 

 by well dunging and manuring the 

 ground, to hasten their attainment of the 

 rough leaf, in which the fly does not at 

 all affect them. New seed, it may also 

 be observed, vegetates more rapidly and 

 vigorously than old ; and the more healthy 

 and vigorous the plants are, the more 

 likely they are to escape depredation. 

 The sowing- of turnips with grain is by 

 many recommended in this connection, 

 and stated to be highly efficacious. 



The culture of cabbages for cattle is a 

 subject well meriting the attention of the 

 agriculturist. The cabbage is subject 

 to few diseases, and resists frost more 

 easily than the turnip. It is palatable to 

 cattle, and sooner fills them than carrots 

 or potatoes; and, in every respect but 

 one, cabbages are superior to turnips. 

 On all soils they require manure ; where- 

 as, on good land, turnips may be raised 

 without it. Fifty-four tons have been 

 raised upon an acre of groxind not worth 

 more than twelve shillings per. annum. 

 Some lands have produced sixty-eight. 

 The time of setting them depends on 

 their intended use. If for feeding in 

 November, plants, procured from seed 

 sown in the end of July in the former 

 year, must be set in March or April : 

 if for feeding in March, April, and May, 

 they must be set in the beginning of 

 the preceding July, from seed sown in 

 the previous February. Repeated trans- 

 plantation may be applied to them with 

 singular advantage. When they are of 

 the larg-e species, four feet by two and u 



