130 [Assembly 



more profitably employed in the cultivation of mangold wurzel, 

 and carrots, both of which are more nutritious and, with proper 

 attention, will no doubt give as large a return as the best culti- 

 vated fields in Britain. 



It appears to me that, with us, turnips should rank only as a 

 secondary crop. They do comparatively well when sown after 

 early potatoes, early Indian corn and other grain, thus keeping 

 the land employed the entire season, but, in my opinion, should 

 not be made a leading crop. 



Turnip-rooted Cabbage. 



Requiring rich soil, a long season to mature in, and its produc- 

 tion being less valuable than either of the preceding root crops, 

 it is perhaps as well that its cultivation in our climate should 

 not be more extensive ; but when grown under circumstances 

 where the ground and labor employed is not of the first import- 

 ance, it affords a good variety and I should prefer it to turnips 

 when for such purpose. In order to have a good crop the ground 

 has to be occupied the whole season. In the early stage of its 

 growth it is used for culinary purposes, and in England, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Bridgeman, "it is cultivated for feeding cows and 

 sheep as well as for table use, and the bulbs often grow to up- 

 wards of twenty inches in circumference and weigh from ten to 

 twelve pounds." 



Garden Products ^ 



Few things are more striking than the usually neglected con- 

 dition of our farmer's gardens. Grounds artistically laid out 

 and embellished with costly shrubbery, to say nothing of the 

 artificial and expensive means employed in producing fruits and 

 flowers that bloom and fruit only, without such care, in tropical 

 climates, has, we are aware, however agreeably associated with 

 country life, nothing to do with farming ; but every farmer should 

 have a small enclosure devoted to the cultivation of culinary 

 vegetables beyond the coarser and few common-place varieties he 

 is unnecessarily too generally confined; and with the view of 



