132 GAEDENING FOE YOUNG AND OLD. 



in on the sand, but which skims over the dry, hard clayey 

 spots, we should be pretty certain to get no crop worth 

 harvesting. As I cannot tell the kind of land on which 

 you are going to sow the turnips, I cannot tell you just 

 how to work it ; it is one of the advantages of agriculture 

 and horticulture, that each man must do his own think- 

 ing. All I can say is this : for turnips, the land must be 

 worked with a plow, the gang-plow, the cultivator, the 

 harrow and the roller, until not a lump remains on the 

 surface or within reach of the drill. 



Before the last harrowing and rolling, or earlier, sow 

 on the superphosphate at the rate of three hundred pounds 

 per acre; be careful to distribute it evenly, and if the su- 

 perphosphate is not entirely free from lumps, run it 

 through a sieve and break them up fine; go over the 

 land once more with the smoothing harrow or roller; set 

 a line do not forget this and drill in the seed, in 

 rows two feet apart. The drill makes its own mark, but 

 if you find the rows are getting crooked, set the line 

 again, and in such a way that in no point it shall be less 

 than two feet from the last drill mark. If the soil is 

 moist, the shallower you can sow the seed the better, pro- 

 vided it is covered at all; but if the surface-soil is dry, 

 you may set the drill to deposit the seed half an inch 

 deep, or until it will reach the moist soil below. I would 

 sow at least two seeds to each inch of row, and if the soil 

 is dry, with little prospect of rain, I would sow three or 

 four seeds to each inch of row, or two pounds to the acre. 

 If the soil and weather are moist/ and every thing is fa- 

 vorable, one pound is sufficient; but in average condi- 

 tions two pounds per acre is the rule. It is better to sow 

 three, four, or even five pounds per acre, than to run 

 any risk of losing your crop by the swarms of black bee- 

 tles which frequently attack the young plants. After 

 the turnip plants get into the rough leaf, the beetles do 

 them comparatively little harm. As soon, therefore, as the 



