90 farmers' and mechanics' journal* 



nure, and covered by turning farrows over it, two on each side. 

 This makes a ridge above the nnanure, upon which is planted the 

 seed. i. is then rolled with a light roller, to bring the earth more 

 in contaci with the seed. The ridges are about two or three feet 

 apart, and he recommends to plant the seeds 10 inches from each 

 other. — Powel's method and practice can best be shewn by an ex- 

 tract from his own communication to the President of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Agricultural Society on the subject. 



" JVIv soil was not naturally strong ; it has been gradually so 

 much deepened, as to enable Wood's plough. No. 2, drawn by four 

 oxen, to plough fourteen inches deep. Fresh barn-yard manure 

 was equally spread upon the surface, and ploughed under in the 

 early part of April, in quantities not larger than are generally used 

 for potato crops in this county. Early in May the land was twice 

 stirred with Beatson's scarifier — harrowed — rolled — after stirred — 

 harrowed, and rolled again in the opposite direction. The holes 

 for the seeds were nsade by a wheel containing pegs in its circum- 

 ference, which penetrated the ground about an inch, leaving inter- 

 vals of four inches ; the rows were made two feet asunder; two 

 capsules were dropped into each hole ; the wheel of a common 

 barrow, was passed over them ; thus compressing the earth, and 

 leaving a slighi rut, for the retention of moisture. 



A small cultivator, which I had contrived for the purpose, was 

 drawn between the rows soon after the weeds appeared ; a three- 

 inch triangular hoe removed the alternate plants, leaving the others 

 at distances, varying from 8 to 12 inches asunder. The cultivator 

 was twice used before the 20th of July. The heavy rains of Au- 

 gust made another hoeing necessary, and surcharged the ground so 

 much with n)oisture, that all roots increased much less in that 

 montli, than during the same time, in the two last years. 



The failure which attends the cultivation of most root crops in 

 drills, proceeds from the neglect of weeds in their early stages. 

 Four or live days of delay, frequently make the difference of fifteen 

 days in the labor of making clean an acre of ground. The same 

 weeds which a boy with a sharp shingle could remove at the com- 

 mencement of one week, may. before the end of next, require the 

 application of an implement drawn by a horse. 



I asci'ibe my success, in great measure, to the use of Wood''s ex- 

 traordinary/ Plough, which enters the soil more deeply, and pul- 

 verizes it more perfectly than any other I have ever seen, with 

 equal force in any country — to the use of cultivators, which com- 

 plete the production of fine tilth — to the destruction of the weeds 

 on their first appearance — to leaving the smallest space upon which 

 a horse can walk between the rows, and above all to planfuig the 

 seeds of a proper kind upon a surface zvhich is kept pcrfeclly fat. '''^ 



The expense of preparation for a Mangel VVurtzel crop, says 

 Powel, is not so great as might be supposed. He states it to be 



